


A Profound Silence

by sinead_smith (smac89)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, F/M, Muteness, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sign Language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2018-12-24 14:01:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12014262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smac89/pseuds/sinead_smith
Summary: Two scientists and an intern find a brutally beaten man in the middle of the desert. This single event will change each of their lives forever.For Jane Foster, it is the proof she always needed that her life's work was not in vain.For Erik Selvig, it is the harbinger of the future he fears is to come.For Darcy Lewis, it is the beginning of the grandest adventure in her life.





	1. A Stranger In A Strange Land

The van sat all alone in the middle of the desert, the only source of light for miles around. The engine and headlights were off to conserve gas and battery, but the glow of computer equipment inside was enough to illuminate the entire vehicle.

 

In the back, Jane and Erik finished up calibrating the sensor equipment, muttering to each other in science-talk. In the driver's seat, Darcy sat sideways so her laptop could fit in her lap. Jane had a wifi hotspot in the van for her equipment, and Darcy took full advantage of that. Just because she was on an internship didn't mean that the rest of her schoolwork was put on hold. And if she did her homework while they were stuck in the middle of the desert, it meant she didn't have to cancel movie night. Again.

 

Once the equipment was ready, Jane slid open the sunroof and stood, holding her custom-made binoculars in one hand. Erik squeezed out the sunroof beside her, both of them peering up into the star-strewn sky.

 

Darcy had seen the atmospheric event Jane had dragged Erik all the way from Sweden for the first seventeen times they'd recorded it, and wasn't interested in seeing it an eighteenth. She had a twenty-page paper on international law to finish by Tuesday, and she'd only gotten a third of it done so far.

 

Also her roommate was live-tweeting the Unity Peace Talks in Paris because _someone's_ father knew a guy who knew a guy who was willing to take along an International Politics student to a once-in-a-lifetime event.

 

Not that Darcy was bitter or anything. After all, she was only stuck in the middle of Nowhere, New Mexico recording lights in the sky with an astrophysicist who had no concept of down time.

 

Which actually wasn't fair. Darcy did like Jane, she was just...intense. Darcy had to physically remove Jane from the lab in order to get her to eat, sleep, or even shower if Jane was really caught up in something.

 

But she needed a science credit and the internship had looked more fun than a Chem class, which was the only other science available that semester.

 

“Wait for it,” she heard Jane say defensively.

 

Darcy looked up disinterestedly and pushed her glasses up her nose. Then she checked her watch. Strange. The atmospheric event, or whatever it was, usually began by now.

 

“I don't understand,” Jane muttered, dropping back into the van to check her equipment. “The last seventeen times have been predictable down to the second.”

 

“Jane,” Erik began, not unkindly.

 

“I didn't have you fly all the way out here for nothing,” Jane cut him off. “I'm _convinced_ this is related to my research!”

 

Darcy leaned back far enough to stick her head out the window and looked up. “Yo, Jane,” she called. “It's starting. It's just a little late.”

 

Jane stood up so fast she banged her shoulder on the edge of the sunroof and yelped in pain, but still raised her binoculars to her eyes. “See?” she asked excitedly. “There! Look!” She shoved the binoculars at Erik, who peered at the subtle shift of colors in the sky overhead.

 

“Hmm,” he said noncommittally. “And it's not caused by magnetic activity?”

 

“No, it's not in the thermosphere like most auroras,” Jane explained. “It's significantly higher, at the edge of the exosphere.”

 

“And you think it's related to the Einstein-Rosen Bridge theory?” Erik asked, sounding a bit dubious.

 

“You saw the readings,” Jane replied. “You saw the lensing at the edges. I'm telling you, Erik. This is it!”

 

Darcy, who had little interest in Jane's research beyond the scope of her duties as an intern, went back to her paper. She'd managed to find two articles in Culver's online library that might be of use, but they were dry as the desert she was currently in the middle of and reading them was a chore.

 

Since Jane would not let Darcy turn on the radio, the only noise was the faint beeping of Jane's equipment. So Darcy heard the footsteps from quite a distance out. They were uneven and dragged, and at first she didn't even recognize them as footsteps.

 

“Hey, do you hear that?” she called up at Jane.

 

“Shh!” Jane hissed back.

 

Darcy put her laptop on the passenger seat and twisted to face the windshield. She peered vainly into the pitch-darkness for a few seconds. “Guys, I think someone's coming!” she said.

 

“There's no one out here,” Jane replied irritably.

 

“Fine,” Darcy grumbled. “If it's a serial killer and we're all horribly murdered and _eaten_ , it's going to be your fault.” She grabbed a flashlight from under her chair and the taser from her bag and opened the driver's side door, sliding out onto her feet.

 

The footsteps continued toward the van for a few more seconds, and then there was a muffled thump, followed by silence. It didn't sound like a serial killer. It sounded like someone staggering and falling over.

 

Darcy took a deep breath and started towards where the sounds had been coming from. She wasn't an idiot. If she ever found herself in a horror movie, she would most definitely _not_ go inside the haunted house. But they were twenty miles away from civilization and even in the middle of winter, the desert was not a place you wanted to get stranded in.

 

She held the flashlight and the taser in front of her the way she'd seen cops and action heroes do on TV, wrists crossed. She walked slow, bent-kneed, trying to stay as quiet as possible. She needn't have bothered. She'd only gone about fifteen feet from the van before she found him.

 

He lay on the other side of a tiny knoll, face down on the hard-packed dirt, limbs sprawled. Darcy shined the flashlight down at him for a few seconds, waiting for him to move. He didn't.

 

“Oh, God,” she whispered. “Please don't be dead.” She edged forward and nudged him with the tip of her boot. He groaned faintly and flinched, much to her relief.

 

“Jane! Erik!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “There's a guy over here and he looks like he's about to kick it!”

 

“What?” she heard Jane yell back. “What do you mean a-- Wait. Kick what?”

 

“A dude!” Darcy called. “About to die! Get over here.”

 

“Shit.” Jane's voice carried across the desert just fine.

 

Darcy turned back to the man lying at her feet. He had long, black hair and what skin she could see was filthy. He was wearing a thick, elaborate tunic, leather pants, and leather boots. Not exactly the kind of clothes one would wear while hiking in the desert.

 

She crouched down next to him and tapped his shoulder. “Hey. Dude. Can you hear me?”

 

He flinched away from her again, rolling over onto his side and raising one hand to protect his eyes from the light. Darcy obligingly angled the flashlight away, and he lowered his hand. The first thing she noticed was the blood. It covered his chin and throat, some of it old and dried while new dribbled from his lips. Then she saw the bruises and swelling, the cuts and scrapes and stains. And lastly she noticed the way his eyes reflected the light, more like an animal than a human.

 

“What the _fuck_ happened to you?” Darcy demanded.

 

The man opened his mouth as if to speak, but only managed a garbled moaning sound as more blood and saliva dripped in strings from his mouth.

 

“ _Shit_ , dude,” Darcy said, unwinding her scarf from around her neck and reaching out to wipe his face. It was a cheap pashmina knock-off, so she didn't care about it getting ruined. But the man recoiled away from her, scrambling backwards weakly.

 

“Hey, I'm just trying to clean you up a bit,” she assured him. “You're a mess. And you're bleeding pretty badly.”

 

He stared at her for a moment, wide-eyed, and didn't move when Darcy scooted closer. He let her lean over and wipe some of the blood from his face. He wasn't actively bleeding from anywhere but his mouth, but that wasn't good. He could have internal bleeding or something.

 

Jane ran up with the first-aid kit bouncing against her leg, Erik close behind. “Oh, my God,” she gasped at the sight of the stranger. “What _happened_?”

 

“I don't know, he's having trouble talking,” Darcy explained, scrubbing at the dried blood on the side of the man's neck. “But he's spitting up blood. That's not good, right?”

 

“No, it's not,” Erik agreed, crouching down next to Darcy with a flashlight of his own. “Did you fall?” he asked the man. “Sustain any blows to the chest or abdomen?”

 

The man shook his head and then reached up to take the scarf from Darcy, holding it to his mouth to stem the flow of blood and saliva.

 

“How did you get out here?” Jane demanded. “Are you lost? Were you attacked?” The man hesitated, and then nodded. Jane shook her head in disbelief. “We need to get him to the hospital,” She said to Erik and Darcy. “If he's bleeding internally he may not have a lot of time.”

 

“Can you stand?” Erik asked him. “Let's get you on your feet.”

 

Erik managed to get the man upright, and it turned out the man was tall. Really tall. And apparently he could not walk because he almost immediately tried to collapse. It was all Erik could do to keep him upright. Neither Darcy nor Jane were tall enough to help support the man's other side, so they settled for running back to the van and moving the equipment around so there would be enough space to fit him.

 

Darcy found an empty notebook and a sharpie and set that aside while she searched for a unopened bottle of water. Erik got the man to the van and lowered him down in the doorway. Darcy shoved the bottle of water into his hand.

 

With a shaking hand, the man raised the bottle to his lips, swished the water in his mouth, and leaned over to spit. It was very red. It did, however, help with the bleeding. He did it again and again until the water was gone, and by then the bleeding had mostly stopped.

 

Darcy offered him the notebook and sharpie. “What's your name?” she asked him. “So we can tell the hospital.”

 

The man took the notebook and the sharpie, but stared at the sharpie for several blank seconds before Darcy took it back from him and pulled the cap off. He nodded as if to himself, accepted it once more, and began to write in a shaky but still elegant hand.

 

Only whatever he wrote, it wasn't English. It wasn't any language Darcy recognized.

 

“Feet in,” Erik ordered, waving at the man. He slid the side door closed and then climbed into the driver's side.

 

The stranger finished writing and offered Darcy the notebook. She took it and stared down at the unfamiliar writing. She looked back up at him. “Uh, do you speak English?”

 

He frowned at her and nodded slowly. Darcy pointed at the writing. “That's not English,” she told him.

 

He stared at the line of symbols, then looked back up at her face. He shrugged helplessly. Then he leaned back against the side of the van and closed his eyes. He looked exhausted. Darcy decided not to press him with any more questions. It already looked like he'd been through hell.

 

XxxXxxX

 

They’d been in the waiting room of the ER for three hours before anyone came to speak with them. None of them had even suggested the idea of leaving. Darcy had tried to wheedle information out of the intake nurse but had been firmly rebuffed both times. After the second time she’d given up and joined Jane in sorting through the data from the last atmospheric event. It helped to pass the time and keep Darcy distracted.

 

“Excuse me,” said a male voice nearby, startling Darcy badly enough that she had to catch her laptop to keep it from tumbling off her lap. She glanced up to see a familiar police officer standing in the tiny waiting area.

 

“Kyle, hey,” she greeted, closing her laptop. “Are you here about the mysterious dude from the middle of the desert?”

 

Darcy had met Officer Murphy on the third day of her internship, when she had gone to pick up tacos for dinner and managed to lock the keys inside the van. He’d checked in on them at the lab every few days since.

 

“Yes, ma’am,” he confirmed, looking slightly disconcerted. “What can you tell me about finding him?”

 

Jane immediately pointed at Darcy. “She found him,” she announced.

 

Darcy glared at her momentarily, but turned to Kyle with a grimace. “Look, I don’t know anything. We were out in the middle of the desert, watching Jane’s pretty lights in the sky, and I heard him moving around out beyond the light. When I went to go see what it was, I found him lying on the ground, covered in blood.”

 

“Did he attempt to communicate with you at all?” Kyle asked.

 

“He tried to say something but he couldn’t,” Darcy said with a frown. “Wait, hang on,” She reached down to dig through her bag for a moment and pulled out the notebook. She ripped out the page in question and handed it to Kyle. “He wrote this when I asked for his name.”

 

Kyle took it and stared at it for a moment. “Okay, well, I’ll have someone look at this,” he said, folding it up and slipping it into his breast pocket. “Can you tell me exactly where you found him?”

 

“Yeah, I have the coordinates here,” Jane said, and read them off for Kyle to copy them down.

 

“Approximate time?” Kyle said.

 

“A few minutes after 11:17,” Darcy piped up.

 

Kyle blinked at her. “That’s….remarkably specific.”

 

Darcy shrugged. “Jane’s light show always starts at 11:15 and tonight it was two minutes late.”

 

Kyle nodded and scribbled a few more notes. He looked back up at Darcy. “Did you see or hear anything prior to finding him? Anything at all?”

 

Darcy shook her head. “I was working on a paper for school. I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry.”

 

“This is a start,” Kyle assured them. He replaced his notebook.

 

“Is he okay?” Darcy asked. “No one will tell us anything.”

 

Kyle grimaced. “He’s been beaten pretty badly, but nothing was life-threatening. Someone did, uh…” He trailed off for a minute, then shook his head. “His tongue was cut out.”

 

“ _Fuck_ ,” Darcy spat, recoiling.

 

“Good God,” Erik said under his breath.

 

“ _Why_ would someone do that?” Jane demanded.

 

Kyle shifted his weight. “We’re starting our investigation,” he said obliquely. “We’ll let you know more when we can.”

 

“Can we see him?” Darcy demanded.

 

Kyle frowned at her and then checked his watch. “Yeah. I can get you in for a few minutes. But I think it would be best if I just took one of you back for now.”

 

“Darcy, you go,” Jane said immediately. “You’re the one who found him.”

 

Darcy got to her feet and slipped her laptop into her bag. “How is he?” she asked Kyle.

 

“It’s hard to tell,” Kyle replied. “He’s not being very cooperative.”

 

“I can’t imagine why that would be,” Darcy said dryly.

 

Kyle gave her a quelling look and gestured for her to follow him. “He’s refusing to communicate, and has already made several attempts to leave. He also will not accept any kind of medication. Basically all they’ve been able to do is clean him up. He won’t even let them start an IV and he’s badly dehydrated.”

 

“Wandering around the desert will do that to you,” Darcy observed in the same dry tone.

 

“We _are_ trying to help him, Darcy,” Kyle said reproachfully.

 

“I get it,” Darcy assured him. “But think about it from his point of view. He can’t write English, probably barely understands it, he’s been brutally attack, disfigured, and left in the desert to die. How trusting would you be?”

 

Kyle sighed and didn’t reply. His partner, Diego, was standing guard outside the door. He nodded to Kyle and Darcy and waved them in. There was a doctor and another man with a gun strapped to his belt standing by the bed. The stranger was seated on the edge of the bed, as if he had attempted to get up and been pushed back down. He was now wearing a gray t-shirt that was two sizes too large and a pair of sweatpants. His black hair was damp and combed back from his face. His face was still bruised, scraped, and slightly misshapen from swelling, but at least he was clean now.

 

His eyes immediately fastened on Darcy when she stepped through the door. They were pale green, like a cat’s, striking under dark brows. Something in them softened at the sight of her, and he nodded in greeting.

 

“Hi,” she said, walking straight over to him. “You doing okay?” He nodded regally in reply.

 

“This is Darcy Lewis,” Kyle told the man with the gun. “She’s one of the people who found him.”

 

“Detective Lee,” the man with the gun introduced himself brusquely. “Did you see or hear anything unusual prior to finding him?”

 

“No,” Darcy replied equally shortly. “Just him.” She turned back to the stranger. “You know they’re trying to help you, right? You’re safe now, but you need to let them take care of you.”

 

The stranger gave the doctor a scornful look and shook his head curtly. Darcy reached over to touch his arm. He flinched, but didn’t pull away from her hand. He dropped his gaze to where her hand rested on his arm, then up at her face, a note of surprise in his shuttered expression.

 

“I can’t even imagine what happened to you,” she whispered. “I have no idea what you’ve been through. But please, please let them help you.”

 

His dark brows drew together and he studied her face for a few seconds. He reached up and tapped his forefinger against her collarbone, and then pointed at the chair in the corner. Then he touched his own chest and pointed at the bed.

 

“Okay, deal,” Darcy said immediately.

 

“I’m sorry, what?” Detective Lee said, looking from Darcy to the stranger and back.

 

“He says that if I stay with him, he’ll let the doctors take care of him,” Darcy explained.

 

“Is that correct?” the doctor interjected eagerly, looking at the stranger. The man nodded in resignation. Darcy squeezed his arm and walked over to the chair. She dragged it over to the side of the bed.

 

“Can you tell Jane and Erik I’ll be staying here and that they should go home and get some sleep?” Darcy asked Kyle.

 

“Yeah, I’ll do that. You have my number. You need anything, give me a call. Anytime, okay?”

 

“Okidoki,” Darcy replied. She sat in the chair and gave the stranger a firm look. “Okay. Now you have to let them give you an IV. Apparently you’re dehydrated and you need antibiotics.”

 

If looks could kill, there would be a smoking crater where Darcy stood, but the stranger swung his legs around and sat back in the bed. He allowed Darcy to pull the blanket over his legs while the doctor hurried out with a relieved expression.

 

Darcy plopped back down in the chair. “I don’t think I introduced myself. I’m Darcy,” she said, offering the stranger her hand. He tilted his head at her, his expression softened just noticeably. He grasped her hand gently and quickly let go.

 

“I work for an astrophysicist,” Darcy explained. “That’s why we were in the desert. Jane’s studying this atmospheric event or something. I don’t know. We’ve  been out there, like, twenty times.”

 

He listened with an intent expression, his whole attention focused on her. When the doctor returned with a nurse and a couple of IV bags, his gaze flicked to them briefly and returned to Darcy. She saw him tense when they approached, and she impulsively reached out to take his hand, clutching it tight in hers.

 

“I don’t really _work_ for Jane,” Darcy went on. “I’m an intern. I need the science credit for college and I figured this was better than sitting in some boring-ass Chem class for sixteen weeks, and then have to take _another_ science next semester, especially since next semester is my last one and I really don’t wanna do anything to hard, right? I mean, I’ve been cramming as much as I can get into each semester for the last three and a half years, it’s about time to take it easy, don’t you think?”

 

As she talked, she watched the doctor swab the stranger’s other hand and prepare to insert the needle. The stranger’s grip on her hand was almost painful, and he was pointedly staring at her face, not at what the doctor was doing. It was obvious he was intensely uncomfortable with the thought of the needle, and Darcy was doing everything she could to distract him.

 

“I’m not even in a real science,” Darcy told him. “I’m in Poli Sci. I was really surprised I got the internship with Jane but apparently I was the only one who applied. What I didn’t know is that most of the stargazers think that Jane is cuckoo for Coco Puffs and no one really takes her seriously, which is why no one wanted to intern with her. So I got it. Lucky me. I mean, it’s not so bad. It’s nice to get out of Virginia in the winter. I get so sick of snow sometimes. I’m from California. I had never even seen snow before I went to Culver. It gets so stupidly cold. I hate cold.”

 

The man flinched, releasing his hold on Darcy’s hand, but she refused to let go. She glanced over at the doctor to see that he had just inserted the needle.

 

“It’s okay,” Darcy told him soothingly. “It’s over.”

 

The stranger swallowed with difficulty and pulled his hand from Darcy’s. He no longer met her gaze, seemingly embarrassed.

 

“We’ve started you on a standard dose of penicillin,” the doctor told him. “We’re also going to give you some painkillers through the IV. We’ll observe overnight, and if you’re responding well to the antibiotics in the morning, we’ll be able to release you.”

 

The stranger nodded curtly and then made a gesture as if dismissing the doctor. The doctor made a note on the stranger’s charts before leaving. For several minutes the stranger sat stiffly, refusing to meet Darcy’s gaze. Eventually she had enough and reached into her notebook. She pulled out her notebook and a pen.

 

“Okay. You seem to understand English pretty well, right?” she asked. He gave her a sour look and nodded. “Awesome,” Darcy went on. She started writing. “You’re gonna need some way of communicating with the police until we figure things out, so I’m going to teach you to write in English.”

 

She handed him the notebook. He took it from her and studied it with a frown. Darcy leaned over and began to point out each letter, giving its name and sound. The stranger listened intently, and then had her go through the alphabet once more. After she was done the second time, he reached over to pluck the pen from her hand and wrote a single word at the bottom of the page.

 

Darcy read it with surprise. Apparently he was a really quick study. She looked up to meet his face. “Hi, Loki,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you.”


	2. A Dubious Deal

Darcy wasn’t sure what had woken her. She rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock on the wall. Five thirty am. Great. She’d gotten all of two hours of sleep. A faint noise from the bed beside her attracted her attention. 

 

Loki was asleep, but his body was tense, all his muscles locked, and his breath was coming in shallow gasps. He twitched minutely, as if trying to move but paralyzed. Darcy got up from where she’d pushed the chair back into a corner and walked over to the bed.

 

“Hey, Loki, wake up,” she called softly. “Loki?” When he did not respond, Darcy put her hand on his shoulder and shook gently. “Loki, you’re having a nightm--”

 

There was a flash of green-gold light, and then Darcy flew backwards off her feet, landing hard on the linoleum floor.

 

“Ow,” she groaned. “What the actual hell?” She looked back over at Loki. He was awake, wide-eyed, and breathing heavily. “What--what did you do?” she demanded.

 

Loki hunched his shoulders and looked away with a guilty expression. He tucked his hands under his arms as if to physically prevent himself from using them. Darcy had no idea what had just happened and, given Loki’s reticence, wasn’t likely to find out. Instead she picked herself up off the floor, dragged the chair over to the bed, and plopped down.

 

“Nightmare?” she asked.

 

He still didn’t look at her, but his forehead creased in a deep frown. Darcy leaned forward, propping her elbows on her knees. “You know that it’s okay, right?” she asked. “If I’d been through what you’d been through I’d be having nightmares, too.”

 

He gave her a sullen look and glanced away. After another moment of silence, he uncrossed his arms and reached for the notebook on the side table. Darcy had discovered last night (earlier that morning, actually) that while Loki could understand English, he seemed to have a hard time writing it. Despite mastering the alphabet in minutes, he was not able to write any words in English unless Darcy wrote them first and told him what word it was. So she had spent an hour writing lists of words she thought would help him in communicating.

 

He flipped to an empty page and scribbled a couple of words before turning it around to show her. It read  _ I apologize _ .

 

“It’s all good,” Darcy assured him. “I think I only broke my tailbone a little bit.”

 

Loki grimaced and gave her a sheepish look. Darcy reached over and patted his arm. “Hey, I was kidding. I’m not hurt.” He fiddled with the pen but didn’t write anything else.

 

Darcy patted his arm again. “You need anything? Water? Hot tea? Chocolate pudding?”

 

That turned his mood sour and shook his head curtly. Darcy winced. Yeah, maybe offering food to someone who’d just had their  _ tongue removed _ was not quite the best idea. Loki wrote down two more words.  _ You sleep _ .

 

“Nah, I’m good,” she said casually. “If you want to get some shut-eye, though, I’ll keep watch.” He frowned and tilted his head quizzically. “Trust me,” Darcy told him. “It helps.” She pulled her laptop from her bag and opened it. She still had some battery left. “I’ll just work on a few things and you get some sleep, okay?”

 

Loki didn’t seem in the mood to argue. He rolled over onto his side with his back to her. Within half an hour he went still and silent, his breathing becoming deep and even. 

 

Darcy snuck out to the cafeteria around seven fifteen to get a cup of coffee. The cafeteria was serving breakfast, but since it was before visiting hours, most of the people there were hospital staff. She got a few odd looks but she ignored everyone in favor of acquiring caffeine. She could have gone to the Starbucks across the street, but she didn’t want to be away from Loki that long.

 

There was definitely something up with him. Darcy wasn’t sure what it was quite yet, but her gut told her that there was a lot more to his story. For one thing, there was the weird thing going on with his language skills. How could he understand English, comprehend the alphabet, but still not be able to string words together? And why was he so reluctant to tell the police what had happened to him? And Darcy couldn’t get the image out of her head of his eyes reflecting the flashlight beam, glowing yellow-green. In any case, Darcy was  _ very _ interested in getting to the bottom of things.

 

She paid the dollar for a cup and made her coffee while stifling a yawn. She should probably call Jane to give her an update but there was always the possibility that Jane was still asleep. Not likely, but if she was, Darcy didn’t want to wake her. Once her coffee was ready, Darcy hurried back to the room.

 

She opened the door and slipped through, closing it quietly before turning around.

 

“Shit,” she said with a sigh.

 

The bed was empty, and the IV line swung loosely from the stand. The blanket was crumpled at the foot of the bed. The bag with Loki’s clothing was gone from on top of the table in the corner. Darcy pinched the bridge of her nose before turning around and leaving the room.

 

She found a nurse at the desk at the end of the hall. “Uh, excuse me,” she said. The nurse didn’t look up from her computer and continued typing. Darcy waited a few seconds. “The patient in room 212 is gone,” she said impatiently.

 

“Have you checked to see if they were released?” the nurse asked in a bored voice.

 

“He wasn’t  _ supposed  _ to be released,” Darcy burst out. “The doctor was supposed to see him this morning after the police talked to him again.”

 

The nurse finally looked up at her. “The police?” she echoed.

 

“Yeah,” Darcy said. “Room 212. You know, guy with his tongue cut out? Him. He’s gone.”

 

The nurse blinked at her for a stunned moment, then reached for the phone.

 

XxxXxxX

 

Darcy hitched a ride back to the lab with Kyle after getting grilled by Detective Lee. She didn't reveal to the detective how worried she was, or her determination to find Loki and wring the truth out of him, one way or another.

 

She burst through the front doors, startling Jane, who was sitting in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal. 

 

“Darcy,” Jane greeted. “How did you get back? We were going to pick you up after breakfast.”

 

“Where's Erik?” Darcy demanded. “We have to go.”

 

“Go where?” Jane asked blankly. 

 

“To find Loki!” Darcy exclaimed, waving one hand in the air. 

 

“Who is Loki?” asked Erik from behind Darcy. 

 

She whirled around to face him. “The dude from the desert! C’mon, people, keep up!”

 

“Why do we need to find him?” Jane asked, scooping the last bits of cereal from her bowl.

 

“He bounced from the hospital, like, an hour ago,” Darcy explained.

 

Jane shot Erik a worried look. “Why would he do that?”

 

“Clearly he has something to hide,” Erik suggested.

 

“Seriously?” Darcy hissed. “He has PTSD. He’s in a foreign country, and he’s probably scared whoever beat the shit out of him is going to come back and finish the job.”

 

“How do you know all that?” Jane challenged.

 

“Because I’m not an idiot,” Darcy snapped. “I can observe things. With my eyes.”

 

“You’re probably right,” Erik said soothingly. “But we should let the police do their job. I am sure they’ll find him soon enough.”

 

“Pretty sure they won’t,” Darcy retorted.

 

Jane looked over Darcy’s shoulder and her eyes widened. “Pretty sure they won’t have to,” she said, and pointed.

 

Darcy whirled around. Loki was standing outside the glass door, hands clasped casually behind his back, peering curiously into the lab. He was wearing his own clothes again, which were miraculously clean of dirt and blood. Before she could react, her phone rang in her pocket. She dug it out and held it to her ear.

 

“Yes?” she asked, distracted.

 

“Darcy, it’s Kyle. Officer Murphy?”

 

“Yeah, what’s up?” Darcy forced her voice to sound nonchalant.

 

“I just wanted to touch bases with you again. You're sure Loki didn’t do or say anything that might have indicated where he could have gone?”

 

“Nope, nothing,” Darcy lied. “I have no idea where he is right now.”

 

“ _ Darcy _ ,” Jane hissed, but Darcy waved her off.

 

“Well, if you hear anything, you’ll let us know?” Kyle asked.

 

“You’ll be the first,” Darcy assured him, walking over to the door.

 

“Alright. Thanks, Darcy.”

 

“No prob.” Darcy shoved her phone back in her pocket and pushed the door open. “Hi!” she said brightly.

 

Loki nodded back and gestured, asking if he could come in. Darcy obligingly stepped out of the way to allow him entry, then closed and locked the door behind him. Loki looked curiously around at the tables of equipment, the haphazard layer of notebooks, photos, and printouts that covered everything, and finally at Jane and Erik, still standing in the kitchen.

 

“Um… Hi,” Jane said lamely. “How… how are you feeling?”

 

Loki nodded regally once more and continued his survey. Darcy took the opportunity to examine him. The swelling and bruising was almost gone from his face, a particularly good-looking face, Darcy didn’t fail to observe. Actually, despite the long hair and weird clothes, Loki definitely qualified as  _ hot _ .

 

A whiteboard full of Jane’s calculations caught Loki’s attention and he crossed over to stare at it for a long time, studying each formula carefully.

 

“Should we… I dunno… call the police, or something?” Jane whispered to Darcy.

 

“No,” she replied firmly.

 

“Why not?” Erik demanded.

 

“Because he came to us,” Darcy told them. “He trusts us. If we call the police he’ll bolt and we’ll never see him again.”

 

“Since when is that a problem?” Jane wanted to know.

 

Darcy gave her a confused look. “Uh, since we found him in the middle of the desert,” she said in a voice she usually reserved for men who didn’t take a hint.

 

“We are not the police, Darcy,” Erik reminded her. “It’s not up to us to find out what happened to him.”

 

“No, but aren’t you the  _ least  _ bit curious as to what his deal is?” Darcy asked.

 

“What deal? What are you talking about?” Jane frowned at her, still holding her cereal bowl and spoon.

 

Darcy lowered her voice. “Okay, I don’t know about you guys, but  _ I _ certainly wouldn’t have healed from that kind of beating  _ this _ fast. Also, I’m pretty sure he threw me across the hospital room without touching me.”

 

“He  _ threw  _ you across the room?” Jane demanded loudly.

 

“Shh!” Darcy hissed, glancing over her shoulder at Loki. He was now studying the photos of Jane’s atmospheric event, flipping through the glossy prints. He either didn’t hear Jane’s outburst, or didn’t care. 

 

“It was an accident,” Darcy assured Jane. “He was having a nightmare and I woke him up.”

 

“And he… threw… you across the room,” Erik echoed skeptically. “Without touching you.”

 

“Yeah, there was a flash of green light and then I was on my ass on the floor,” Darcy replied.

 

“People can’t just move things without touching them,” Erik pointed out.

 

“They can if they have superpowers,” Darcy argued.

 

“All the more reason for us to call the police,” Jane said, reaching into the pocket of her sweater for her phone.

 

“No,” Darcy said, and grabbed Jane’s wrist. “Look, just give me some time, okay? We need to find a better way to communicate with him, then we can figure out the truth.  _ Then  _ we’ll call the police.”

 

“What if he’s crazy, or violent?” Jane protested.

 

“He’s not,” Darcy insisted. “Trust me. I know a psychopath when I see one.”

 

“Yeah, and why’s that?” Jane asked sarcastically.

 

Darcy gave her a quelling look. “Remind me to tell you about my birth mother some time,” she said coldly.

 

Jane stared at her for a blank few minutes and then opened her mouth. “Later,” Darcy cut her off. “Just give me some time, okay?”

 

Jane put her phone back in her pocket. “One day,” she said warningly.

 

“Jane, you can’t be--” Erik began, but Darcy interrupted him by clapping her hands and bouncing over to Loki.

 

“Hey, you want something to eat?” she asked him. “I’m sure you’ve gotta be hungry, you haven’t eaten anything since we brought you to the hospital.”

 

Loki grimaced and shook his head, stepping delicately away from Darcy. She followed him, still maintaining her cheer. “Well, let me at least make you a smoothie. No chewing, and it’ll fill you up. We can’t have you passing out from low blood sugar.”

 

Loki snorted and gave her a look that bordered on amusement. He shrugged one shoulder and then nodded. “Great!” Darcy exclaimed, and grabbed his arm. “Come on!”

 

Darcy had smoothie ingredients on hand because Jane was a woman obsessed with her work and sometimes could not be pulled away even to eat. It was easier for Darcy to put a smoothie in her hand and let her work than to force a distracted Jane to eat a solid meal.

 

Since flavor wasn’t going to be an issue (Darcy grimaced to herself at that thought), she pulled out the spinach and kale as well as the last of the peaches and blueberries. She put a double dose of protein powder in, as well as yoghurt for texture. Loki watched her curiously, picking up and examining each ingredient as if he had never seen them before.

 

Darcy guessed that he didn’t know the English words for them so she named each one he picked up. “I can write them down for you later if you want,” she offered. He nodded gratefully. After adding ice and blending, she handed him the finished product. “Drink all of it,” she ordered.

 

He gave her a courtly bow, but she felt as if he was mocking her, and he went back to examining Jane’s lab as he drank. Darcy watched his face, but his expression didn’t change. She guessed the smoothie was acceptable.

 

“What are we going to actually  _ do _ with him?” Jane asked, chewing on her thumbnail.

 

“I’m gonna teach him sign language,” Darcy decided.

 

“What?” Jane asked, giving her a strange look.

 

“My foster-brother was non-verbal autistic,” Darcy explained. “He was able to communicate through sign language. I’m not the greatest at it, but you can sign up for online courses.”

 

“I said  _ one day _ ,” Jane reminded her. “That sounds like it could take weeks.”

 

“Well, it’s a start,” Darcy retorted. They both looked around when Loki cleared his throat. He was holding up one of Jane’s notebooks.

 

“No, don’t touch that!” Jane exclaimed, hurrying over and snatching it from him. “I have a very specific filing system. If anything is out of place-- Besides, all of this is proprietary work. You can’t be looking at it.”

 

Loki gave her a very annoyed look and took the notebook back, flipped it open to the middle, and set it on the table. He found a pen under a napkin with two halves of two different calculations on it and wrote a short mathematical formula under Jane’s work.

 

“What are you doing?” Jane yelped, and grabbed the notebook again. Loki let her take it this time and stepped back, still looking annoyed. Jane frowned at the note he’d written. “Hang on,” she said. “That doesn’t make any sense…. Unless…” She looked up again. “You’re a genius!” She bolted over to a mostly-empty whiteboard and began scribbling. “Erik!”

 

Erik appeared from the direction of the guest bedroom, a copy of  _ Science Earth _ in one hand. “Yes?” he asked, eying Loki warily. Loki stared back and took another drink of his smoothie.

 

“Erik, look at this,” Jane said excitedly. “I can’t believe I didn’t see this before. It was  _ right there _ the whole time and I never even realized it but look! Look!”

 

Darcy looked up at Loki. “What did you do?” she asked suspiciously.

 

“He calculated the  _ exact _ energy needed in order to create an Einstein-Rosen Bridge!” Jane exclaimed, slamming the cap back onto the marker. “Erik, this is  _ revolutionary _ . It’s so much less than we always thought!”

 

“How could he have possibly known that?” Erik demanded, bewildered.

 

“Hey,” Darcy interrupted, waving a hand. “He’s right here. Just ‘cause he can’t talk doesn’t mean you can pretend he doesn’t exist.”

 

“Right, sorry,” Jane said guiltily, turning towards Loki. “How did you know that calculation? Are you an astrophysicist? Have you worked on this before?”

 

Loki shrugged and finished the last of his smoothie. Jane stared at him hungrily. “Do you know this math?” She asked, gesturing toward the boards. “Do you know what we’re trying to achieve here?” Loki nodded. “Will you help us?” Jane demanded.

 

Loki frowned and put his cup down. He looked over at Darcy and gestured with one hand as if writing. Darcy retrieved the notebook from her computer bag and handed it over. Loki flipped through the lists of words Darcy had written down for him before turning to a blank page and wrote,  _ payment for services _ .

 

“What services?” Darcy asked, peering up at him suspiciously.

 

Loki wrote down a word Darcy didn’t recognize. “Hang on, let me Google translate that,” she said, and typed the word into her phone. She chose “detect language” but there were no results. “Well, shit,” she said. She looked helplessly up at Loki, who just shrugged in reply.

 

Erik took the notebook and startled at the sight of the word, his eyebrows arching towards his hairline. “ _ Risna _ ,” he said out loud, sounding surprised. Loki nodded.

 

“Do you know what it means?” Darcy asked.

 

“It means ‘hospitality,’” Erik explained.

 

“In what language?” Darcy pressed.

 

“Ancient Norse,” Erik replied. He looked at Loki. “How do you know Ancient Norse?”

 

“How do  _ you _ know Ancient Norse?” Darcy challenged Erik.

 

“My ex-wife works for the Swedish History Museum,” Erik said dryly. “She studies Viking culture and language.”

 

Loki took the notebook back and wrote down a few more words in the same language. Erik peered at them for a long moment. “My… language?” he guessed after a while. Loki nodded again with the faintest hint of a smile.

 

“Wait, are you saying your first language is  _ Ancient Norse _ ?” Darcy demanded, crossing her arms. “Where the hell are you from?”

 

This time Loki only wrote a single word, and Darcy recognized it as soon as she saw it.

 

_ Asgard _ .

 

“That’s not possible,” Erik said flatly.

 

“What’s not possible?” Jane asked, leaving her whiteboard and joining them.

 

“He says he’s from Asgard,” Erik replied, waving an arm at Loki.

 

“Where is Asgard?” Jane asked blankly.

 

“It doesn’t exist!” Erik insisted. “It’s a made-up story! The land of the gods. There’s no such place.”

 

Loki crossed his arms and looked disdainfully down his nose at Erik.

 

“Actually, it kinda makes sense,” Darcy mused.

 

“No, it doesn’t,” Erik said firmly.

 

“Think about it,” Darcy protested. “His name is  _ Loki _ , he reads and writes  _ Ancient Norse _ , he has mysterious inhuman abilities. He could totally be from Asgard.”

 

“Asgard isn’t real,” Erik said again. “It’s legend, old mythology, nothing more.”

 

“Well, most mythologies do have some kind of basis in fact, don’t they?” Darcy pointed out. “What if there were some kind of super-powered Ancient humans from a place called Asgard that visited the Vikings back in the day? A primitive civilization would have worshipped them as gods.”

 

Erik gaped at her. “Why are you so willing to believe him?” he demanded suspiciously.

 

“Because all the evidence is right here,” Darcy said, gesturing theatrically toward Loki, who gave her another mocking bow. She looked up at him. “Where is Asgard, anyway?”

 

Loki held out his hand toward Jane, who stared at him in confusion for a moment before slowly handing over the dry-erase marker. On the portion of the whiteboard still empty, Loki sketched a tree. At the top, he drew a circle and labelled it  _ Asgard _ . Then, in the middle of the trunk, he drew another circle and labelled it  _ Miðgarðr _ . Then he labelled the tree  _ Yggdrasill. _

 

Darcy, Jane, and Erik all stared at the illustration for several seconds. “I don’t get it,” Darcy said out loud. Loki sighed impatiently and erased the image. Then he drew two circles, one significantly larger than the other. The large one he labelled  _ Sól _ and the small one he labelled  _ Miðgarðr. _

 

“That is the sun, and earth,” Erik guessed, and Loki nodded curtly. He turned back to the board and drew two more circles several inches away. He labelled these  _ Rọðull _ and  _ Asgard _ respectively.

 

Darcy stepped forward. “Hang on a second,” she said slowly. “If  _ that’s _ the sun and earth, then is  _ that _ Asgard’s sun?” She pointed at  _ Rọðull _ . Loki nodded again. “Oh. Wow.” Her eyes widened. “So Asgard is another  _ planet _ ?” Loki nodded firmly and capped the marker.

 

There was another moment of silent staring, broken this time by Darcy.

  
“Holy  _ shit _ , you’re an alien!”


	3. Of All The Realms To Land Upon...

It had been, largely, a frustrating day.

 

Loki’s inability to communicate easily with the mortals he had found himself surrounded by had given him a headache that he could not seem to alleviate. Once he had revealed himself to the mortals, they had proceeded to bombard him with questions he was unable to answer until he discretely set a nearby machine on fire and made his escape while they scrambled to extinguish it.

 

He retreated to the roof of the laboratory for a moment of peace. The landscape was desolate; a dry, ugly wilderness with no redeeming qualities save the vast, clear sky overhead. Loki peered upwards. It had been some time since he had been on Miðgarðr, and he did not remember the star positions from this world. Asgard’s sun was too far away to be seen with the naked eye from Miðgarðr. Not that he cared. He had no intention of ever returning to Asgard. Not after…

 

No. It did not bear dwelling on. He had more important things to focus on. Namely, survival. These mortals had saved his life, bringing him from the desert to a place of healing, and now offering him shelter. He was  _ intimately _ familiar with the dangers of being indebted to anyone, which was why he had offered to repay the mortals with the only currency he had of any value: knowledge.

 

Now, if only Darcy Lewis would stop being so thrice-bedamned  _ generous _ . She gave so easily, with no thought to repayment. She was fortunate that it was Loki she had found in the desert, and not someone with less honor.

 

Because Loki still had his honor. He might have lost everything else, but he would not lose that.

 

Oh, the havoc he could wreak on these mortals if he had a mind to it. They were so naive, so gullible. He could make them dance to whatever tune he played and it was certainly tempting. But he had no desire to attract attention from Asgard. Not yet, anyway. When he did reveal himself, it would be by his plan, and it would be magnificent.

 

The door to the roof opened behind him, but he did not turn around. When the intruder on his reverie began walking towards him, he identified them as the mortal woman, Darcy, by her gait. Her presence simultaneously irritated and amused him. She had the potential to be quite entertaining, if she would only stop being so meddlesome.

 

“Hey,” Darcy said when she joined him. “Sorry about that. Pretty shitty thing to do when you can’t, you know, defend yourself.”

 

Loki grimaced but still didn’t look at her. She didn’t take the hint, however, and elbowed him in the arm. “The space heater catching fire. Was that you? Are you, like, a firestarter or something? Pyrokinetic?”

 

He snorted and didn’t attempt to reply. He had no desire to inform the mortals of the extent of his magicks. He had discovered through experience that primitive cultures had a tendency to react one of two ways to powers beyond their understanding: awe, or terror. He doubted the mortals would hail him as a god as they once did, and he did not need the inconvenience of avoiding raving mobs out for his blood.

 

“Whatever, dude,” Darcy went on blithely. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. Just if that  _ was _ you, can we just agree to no more fires inside the lab? Most of Jane’s equipment she built herself and it’s all custom. She can’t exactly order it from Best Buy.”

 

Half the time Loki had no idea what Darcy was talking about, but he still nodded, unable to keep his exasperation completely off his face.

 

“I’m going to teach you sign language,” Darcy announced suddenly. Loki finally looked down at her, his brows drawn together inquiringly. “It’s a language made up of hand gestures,” Darcy explained. “I’m not great at it, but I know a little, and I can download lessons from the internet. I think it’ll make things easier for you, since you’re kinda struggling with English.”

 

Loki sniffed and turned away from her again. He was not  _ struggling _ . Allspeak was, unfortunately, a spoken language only, and because Loki heard all languages as his native one, he would never fully be able to learn to read the mortal’s language. Definitely a lack of foresight on the part of the founders of Asgard.

 

“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” Darcy said, elbowing him again. He stepped away from her, hoping his lack of reaction would be enough to communicate on its own, but she followed him. “English is a stupid language,” she continued. “It’s hard to learn for everyone, even people who  _ speak _ it. So don’t worry, no one will judge you.”

 

Loki had the ability to understand and speak every known language in the  _ universe _ . How dare a  _ mortal _ judge him for not being able to read and write a practically useless alphabet from a backwater world with no concept of interplanetary communication?

 

“Let me show you,” Darcy went on relentlessly. She held up her right hand, first finger extended upright with her thumb and remaining fingers forming a circle. She traced another circle in the air in front of her chest before gently thudding her hand into her left shoulder.

 

“That’s my name in sign language,” she told him. “It’s a play off the sign for ‘attitude’ because my foster mom is  _ hysterical _ .”

 

Loki indulged the mortal by imitating the gesture perfectly. Darcy grinned up at him. “Now you can say my name.”

 

He stared down at the woman for several seconds, marvelling at her innocence. She really did not have any idea what he was capable of. She did not know what she was offering him. She did not know that he could use her any way he pleased and could cast her aside when he was done.

 

Loki had never had any compunction against using others for his own gain, but this… to take advantage of her compassion, her generosity… he could not bring himself to it. He would not be a monster, regardless of the blood that ran through his veins.

 

“You ready to come back down?” Darcy asked, completely unaware of the nature of his thoughts.

 

He clasped his hands behind his back and shook his head. He would prefer a little more time in silence so he might plan for the future. He had to admit, he had not anticipated  _ this _ outcome when he formulated the plot to ruin Thor’s coronation.

 

“Okay,” Darcy said brightly. “Take your time. We’ll be here.” 

 

When he was once more alone, Loki resumed his study of the desert. He would need a map of this world, and his tools. He needed to know all the Ways to and from this realm, other than the one that he happened upon by accident. In any case, that one led to Jötunheimr, and he had little use of it.

 

A shiver went down his spine and he brutally shoved those memories as far down as he could. Dwelling on them would do him no good, and he could not afford to be weak, not here on an alien world surrounded by strangers.

 

He summoned a bronze bowl, his silver athame, and a wooden-handled brush with bristles made from his own hair from storage. He held the brush in his teeth and set the bowl on the roof, kneeling down so he could hold his wrist over it. He used the athame to cut the inside of his wrist, where the skin was thin and the veins close to the surface. He kept the blade of the knife in the incision to prevent it from closing until the bowl was filled with enough blood. The bleeding stopped almost immediately.

 

The mortals’ laboratory was oddly shaped, so Loki elected to use the cardinal directions rather than the four corners. He inked the spells in his own blood, reciting the words in his head, letting the seidr flow from his mind, to his hand, to his blood.

 

His mother--no,  _ Frigga _ \--had never approved of his fascination with blood magicks, and he had been forced to learn them on his own. This particular spell was one of his favorites, and one he had never shared with anyone else. Its purpose was to hide whatever was contained inside the spell from all magical sight. In essence, it would hide this building from Heimdall the Gatekeeper, and keep Loki shielded from unfriendly eyes. The spell would only last until the blood sigils faded, but given how little it rained here, he should not have to renew them for some time.

 

Once the blood ward was completed, Loki vanished the bowl, knife, and brush back to storage until he had need of them again. If he were to return to the laboratory below, the mortals would no doubt attempt to drown him in questions again. He found the thought distasteful. Besides, he needed to get his bearings. The place of healing, or  _ hospital _ as Darcy had called it, had been located in a small village nearby. He would investigate the village, such that it was, and see what resources it had to offer.

 

Darcy Lewis and her unending enthusiasm could wait.

 

XxxXxxX

 

The village was as disappointing as Loki feared it would be, smaller and more primitive even than the nomad camps on Vanaheim. There was little there of any use to him. It would be just his luck to find himself stranded in the desert on an undeveloped realm in the middle of absolutely  _ nowhere _ .

 

He returned to the laboratory sometime past midday, to find that the mortals had worked themselves up almost to a frenzy.

 

“Where have you  _ been _ ?” Darcy demanded as soon as he strolled in. “It’s been  _ hours. _ We thought you got arrested or something!”

 

Loki gave her an exasperated look and picked up the notebook from where it had been placed on a table. He quickly flipped through the lists of words she had written down for him until he found an appropriate combination. He wrote  _ I am fine _ , and showed it to her. She snatched the notebook from his hand so she could slap it against his chest.

 

“That’s not the  _ point _ ,” she told him impatiently. “You shouldn’t have left without telling us!”

 

Loki scowled and set the notebook down. He did not know the words in English, the mortal’s tongue, to make the reply he wanted to, and his headache reappeared. 

 

“Look, we’re not saying you  _ can’t _ leave,” Jane Foster added. “We just want you to let us know if you  _ do _ leave. And the police are looking for you. They came by while you were gone. They’re  _ really _ not happy about you leaving the hospital.”

 

“We didn’t tell them you’d been here,” Darcy added quickly. “But are you sure you don’t want to talk to them about what happened to you?”

 

Loki gave her a forbidding glare and wished to have his voice back so he could tell her  _ precisely _ what he thought about Miðgarðian law enforcement and their ability to do anything at all about what had happened to him.

 

Darcy narrowed her eyes at him. “Wait a second,” she said slowly. “Did...did whatever happened to you…  _ not _ happen on earth?”

 

Loki crossed his arms and shook his head.

 

“No, it  _ did _ happen on earth, or no, it  _ didn’t _ happen on earth?” Darcy attempted to clarify. When Loki gave her an annoyed look, she waved her hand in front of her face. “Sorry. Did it happen on earth?”

 

He shook his head again.

 

“Oh. Okay,” Darcy said, and looked at Jane Foster and Erik Selvig. “But if it didn’t happen on earth, does that mean you  _ just _ got to earth?”

 

Loki hesitated, and then nodded. Jane straightened. “How did you get here?” she demanded. “How did you get from Asgard to here? Do you have some kind of ship?”

 

Loki snorted derisively and shook his head.

 

“No, of course not,” Erik Selvig said slowly. “You have the Bifrost, don’t you?”

 

Loki turned to look at the older mortal with interest. He nodded, inclining his head in acknowledgement.

 

“Bifrost?” Jane Foster asked eagerly. “What is that?”

 

“It’s described as a bridge in the old legends,” Erik Selvig explained. “A way for them to travel between worlds.”

 

“What kind of bridge?” Jane demanded. “Like an Einstein-Rosen Bridge?”

 

“I don’t know,” Erik demanded. “The legends don’t exactly tell us  _ how _ it worked, just that it did.”

 

“So… you don’t have a space ship?” Darcy asked, sounding disappointed.

 

Loki rolled his eyes and reached for the notebook. He tore an empty page from it and found the pen again. He drew two dots and labeled on “Asgard” and the other “Miðgarðr,” then drew a line between them. He held up the page to the mortals, waiting until he got acknowledgement that they understood. Then he folded the page so the dots touched each other, and forced the pen through the paper at that point.

 

“Yes!” Jane Foster crowed. “It  _ is _ like an Einstein-Rosen Bridge! This is it, Erik! I was right! I  _ knew _ it!”

 

“Run this Einstein-thingie bridge past me again,” Darcy said, raising her hand.

 

Erik Selvig gave her a confused look. “I thought you were a science major.”

 

“Political science,” Darcy corrected.

 

“An Einstein-Rosen bridge is basically a wormhole,” Jane explained, sounding nearly giddy. “You know what a wormhole is, right?”

 

“Uh, yeah,” Darcy said indignantly. She looked over at Loki. “So your Bifrost thing is a wormhole generator?”

 

Loki had never heard the term “wormhole” used in this context and did not know exactly what it was. But Jane Foster at least had a basic concept of creating pathways through space and time, and she called it a “wormhole,” so he nodded briefly.

 

She sighed heavily. “Dammit. I was holding out for a spaceship.” She eyed him again. “So… you got jumped on another planet… and you used the Bifrost to come  _ here _ ? Why didn’t you go back to Asgard? Come to think of it, why don’t you go back to Asgard now?”

 

Which was  _ precisely _ the reason he hadn’t wanted to answer their questions in the first place. Loki put the paper and the pen on the table, turned on his heel, and walked out of the laboratory again. He heard Darcy run after him.

 

“Loki, wait!”

 

He owed them a debt, he reminded himself, and stopped walking, turning to face her.

 

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on… about anything… ever,” Darcy said, looking contrite. “And I’m sorry. I guess there’s things you don’t want to talk about. We don’t have to talk about those things. But you gotta realize that none of us have ever met a real alien before. I mean, you  have those wackos that claim they got kidnapped by a UFO and had their asses probed or whatever, but to actually have proof that there’s life on other planets… that’s kind of a big deal.”

 

Loki shook his head. Such a sheltered, naive race, completely unaware of the true extent of the universe and how insignificant they truly were.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Darcy said wryly. “You guys have probably been travelling to other worlds for hundreds or thousands of years. But cut us some slack. We’re new to all of this.”

 

Loki raised an eyebrow skeptically at her. He wondered briefly what Darcy Lewis of Miðgarðr would think of the great universe, of the Nine Realms and the planets beyond, and then he reminded himself that he didn’t care, that he would only tolerate these mortal’s company for as long as he needed them, and no more.

 

“Are you hungry?” Darcy asked, abruptly changing the subject. “Did you eat anything while you were out? You should probably get some solid food in you.”

 

Loki grimaced. The thought of eating without tasting was repulsive to him, but he supposed he would need to become accustomed to it. He nodded reluctantly, and Darcy reached out to grab his sleeve. It was all he could do not to blast her away from him. Ignorant of the danger she was in, she tugged him back towards the laboratory.

 

“Come on. Jane and Erik need feeding, too. Scientists, man. I swear they have no self-preservation skills. I’m always reminding Jane when to eat and when to sleep and stuff. It’s amazing she survived without me all these years.”

 

Loki delicately pulled his sleeve from her grasp but still followed her back to the building. He would need to create a plan as soon as possible, if he were to escape this mortal woman’s clutches.

 

XxxXxxX

 

_ They ran. _

 

_ But of course they did, because Thor could never keep his mouth shut. _

 

_ The cold air shredded his lungs. Oh, how he ran. He was swifter than the others, nimbler, more surefooted, but he dare not leave them behind. The wind howled at their back. _

 

_ No, not the wind. _

 

_ The Jötunn lunged from behind a rock formation, the blade of ice slicing towards his belly. He could not stop in time. _

 

_ He avoided the blade, but not the Jötunn, and they crashed to the ice underfoot, sliding dangerously close to the edge of the cliff.  _

 

_ His dagger was in his hand, buried once, twice, in the giant’s neck. Black blood sprayed on his face. Even their blood was ice-cold. The Jötunn staggered backward, his arm still in its grip. _

 

_ They fell… _

 

_ Darkness screamed up to swallow him. _

 

_ They loomed over him, broken, helpless. Their claws stripped him of his armor, tearing at his clothing, his skin. The cold devoured him from the inside. His skin changed, became like theirs. _

 

_ “Runt,” they called him. “Misbirth. Traitor. Kin-killer.”  _

 

_ They broke his bones with rocks. He muttered spells at them to escape, and they forced his teeth apart with cold iron and cut out his tongue. _

 

_ He bled black and cold. _

 

Loki’s eyes snapped open as he broke free of the nightmare. He did not move, but remained frozen in place, curled up on his side in the narrow bed. He had broken out in a cold sweat, however, and his body ached with remembered injuries.

 

The room was dark and silent, as was the remainder of the laboratory outside. No one else was awake. He took a deep breath and stretched, pulling the blanket back so he could rise to his feet. The room had been Darcy’s, and a few of her belongings still remained, but she had moved into the smaller residence behind the laboratory to allow him the room. It was cramped and the bed was too short, but he supposed beggars could not be choosers.

 

Loki left the room and padded silently down the short hall into the laboratory proper. The front door was locked but it opened under his hand. He walked a few paces from the door and stopped. It was winter, here in the desert, Darcy had told him, but it hardly compared to Asgard during the same season. Compared to Jötunheimr, it was practically sweltering. So he was not at all uncomfortable in the thin shirt and drawstring pants he had been provided with to wear.

 

He tilted his head back and stared up at the sky. Velvet-black, strewn with more stars than even he could count. None of them was Jötunheimr. He was far, far away from the ice planet, far enough that they would never find him, even if they searched for him. He doubted they would. Even his tormentors had left him for dead once they had grown bored of him. He had had to set his own bones and wait for them to heal before he could crawl to the Way.

 

Of course Thor had never bothered to come looking for him. Loki presumed it was far easier to assume he was dead and be done with him once and for all. And of course the Allfather would not approve of an invasion into Jötunheimr for the likes of  _ him _ . Why would the king bother to retrieve the body of one who was not even an Aesir, much less of the royal family?

 

Did Thor know the truth, Loki wondered. Surely that was why Thor always kept him in the shadows, why he never viewed Loki as an equal, why he was always second-best. Well, no one on Asgard would ever have to suffer his presence again. His life there had been a lie he was no longer willing to live.

 

One day, perhaps, he would return and confront the Allfather. He would get the truth. But it would be on his own terms, triumphant, not broken and silenced and cast out.

 

_ I have no loyalty to any realm anymore _ , he thought to himself.  _ No home. No people. I am alone, as I have always truly been _ .

 

The door to the outbuilding swung open, and Loki sighed internally. Apparently not as alone as he would  _ like  _ to be. It was, of course, Darcy. She crossed the open space between them, wrapped in a thick coat.

 

“What are you doing out here?” she asked. “Aren’t you cold? It’s, like, thirty-five degrees. And you have no shoes.” She stared down at his bare feet before peering myopically at his face. “What, does it get really cold on your planet or something?”

 

Loki couldn’t help the bark of hopeless laughter that escaped his throat. Oh, if she only  _ knew _ … But would she have understood? Did the mortals remember the Jötnar and their monstrous deeds? Did they whisper stories at night of the blue-skinned demons that stole children away to devour them?

 

He settled for a neutral shrug and Darcy frowned. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Can’t sleep?” He shrugged again. She nodded knowingly. “Yeah. Nightmares. I had ‘em for months after--” she abruptly cut herself off and looked away.

 

Loki tilted his head at her, find himself curious despite himself. He touched her arm to get her attention, and then gestured for her to continue. She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and then began to talk.

 

“My mom, my birth mother, anyway. She was real piece of work. She, uh, well, she was pretty much a psychopath, and she should never have been allowed to procreate. I was eight when someone finally noticed, and CPS got me out of there. But I was messed up for a while, man. Took a while for me to stop screaming in my sleep.”

 

She shuffled her feet and then rubbed her ear with her shoulder. “Forget it,” she muttered. “I don’t know why I told you that. It’s not like I want you to feel sorry for me or anything.”

 

Loki considered her with new eyes. So, they were both children of monsters, where they? Suddenly she became  _ vastly _ more interesting. He wondered how, if she had been abused so thoroughly as a child, she had come to be such a generous person. He also wondered what sort of darkness she must hide, deep in her soul.

 

And he wondered what exactly it would take to draw that darkness to the surface.

 

He was  _ very _ curious.


	4. Silence Is Not Golden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today is Thanksgiving. I'm assuming my American readers will be spending today (or at least part of it) with family. If you need a distraction from uncomfortable and mandatory interactions with relatives you haven't seen since last Thanksgiving, I'm happy to provide. I am going to sleep until 1pm, then go to work where I will drink entirely too much coffee and wait for the Cowboys game to end so we can start sending officers to public intox and family disturbance calls. Who knows. Maybe I'll have time to write some more.
> 
> Don't feel sorry for me. I've worked Thanksgiving for the last three years, and it gives me something to do since my parents are in England and my brother always goes to his in-laws in El Paso. Hey, at least there's free food at work, right? And I don't have to cook any of it.
> 
> Drop me a line, tell me you love it or hate it, and let me know your favorite thing you ate today. That goes for my non-American readers, too. I'd love some ideas for new dishes to try cooking for my girlfriend.

Loki was bored.

 

He had mastered the mathematics Jane Foster was using for her research when he was a very small child, and her so-called atmospheric event was not even a proto-bridge. Even his language lessons with Darcy were not enough to stave off the tedium.

 

He got little sleep at night, still plagued by nightmares, and spent much of them with paper maps of Miðgarðr and his tools, searching for Ways to and from the planet. So far the ones he had found were either inaccessible or to realms he had no desire to visit. With each useless discovery, his frustration grew.

 

On his third day on Miðgarðr, shortly after breakfast, Darcy approached him while he was still seated at the table and dropped two flimsy bags in his lap that appeared filled with clothing. He looked up at her with an annoyed frown.

 

_ What is this? _ He signed at her.

 

“You needed clothes,” she told him. “You’ve been wearing the same outfit for three days and you have not done laundry. I notice these kind of things. Not that you smell or anything, but you need at least one change of clothing. Also, you can’t go out in public dressed like  _ that _ .”

 

Loki gave her a withering look and pulled one of the articles of clothing out of the bag. It was a shirt of some soft, thick material in an attractive shade of green. He rubbed the fabric between his fingers. It wasn’t a  _ terrible _ choice. But he really did not need to be in debt to this mortal woman any more than he already was.

 

_ Thank you _ , he signed grudgingly, placing the shirt back in the bag. 

 

“You’re welcome,” Darcy said brightly. “Now. You have normal clothes. Go change. We’re going into town.”

 

He stared at her for a long moment.  _ Why? _

 

“Because you have been cooped up here for three days and I am going stir-crazy,” Darcy informed him.

 

“Uh, aren’t the police still looking for him?” Jane asked, looking up from her laptop.

 

“They are,” Erik replied, reading from his tablet while finishing the last of his omelette.

 

“Maybe it’s not a good idea for you guys to go into town if the police are still looking for Loki,” Jane said uncertainly.

 

“Well, we can’t stay  _ here _ forever!” Darcy complained, throwing her hands up in the air. “I’ve already done everything I needed to get done and I’m  _ bored. _ Loki is bored, too. We need something to do.”

 

Jane narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you have finals to study for?” she asked.

 

“Something  _ other _ than school because I am going bug nuts,” Darcy clarified. “If I stare at a computer screen any longer my eyes are going to be permanently crossed.”

 

“What are you going to tell Kyle if you run into him?” Jane demanded. “‘Sorry we lied and hid a person of interest from you. My bad?’”

 

Loki rapped his knuckles sharply against the surface of the table. Everyone looked at him, including Erik, who hadn’t been invested in the conversation. With quick, irritated motions, Loki signed  _ didn’t ask me wanted to go. _

 

Erik and Jane both looked at Darcy, who appeared chagrined. “Sorry. I thought you’d want to bust out of here for a couple of hours,” she told him apologetically.

 

What irked him the most was that he  _ did _ . Darcy was more perceptive than he gave her credit for. He did not like having to remain inside the laboratory. He was bored, restless, and above all  _ frustrated _ . He got to his feet, picking up the bags of clothing. He gave Darcy one more annoyed look before stalking back to the bedroom he had been given. Behind him, he heard Darcy lament, “Why does he always look like I pissed in his cornflakes?”

 

He did not hear the response, if any. He laid the articles of clothing out on the narrow bed, examining each one. Other than the green shirt, there were two pairs of trousers, both black, two short sleeved shirts, also black, and two more long sleeved shirts, a second green one and the other black. Darcy clearly made her choices based on his Asgardian clothing, and he grudgingly admitted that she had not done a terrible job.

 

He changed quickly into the Miðgarðian clothings, which was not as uncomfortable as he had feared, and returned to the laboratory to find Darcy hovering over Jane’s shoulder and Erik speaking into the communication device they called a cell phone.

 

Darcy looked up and caught sight of him. Her face lit up in a bright smile. She was not unattractive when she smiled, Loki noted, and then strangled that thought as quickly as it was birthed.

 

“Hey, it fits!” Darcy announced, straightening. “I had to guess on your size. I dated a guy with your build, though. Guess I have a type.” She winked at him and Jane groaned, slapping her hand over her eyes.

Loki ignored the flirting and signed  _ Why you want go into city? _

 

“Well, at the very least to pick up the mail,” she replied. “Not that we get that much but I haven’t checked our box in, like, a week, so it’s probably full of junk mail. We can also use some groceries unless we want to eat cold cereal for every meal for the rest of the week.”

 

“That would be preferable,” Erik commented, looking over at the three of them. He went back to his quiet conversation with a muttered, “And you’re completely certain about that?”

 

“Mail, groceries, insulated copper wire that Jane needs for her new doohickey, and a cell phone charger,” Darcy listed, ticking off her fingers as she did. “It’ll be two hours, tops. Are you sure don’t wanna come?”

 

Loki sighed heavily then signed,  _ I go with you. _

 

Darcy beamed at him again and clapped her hands together. “Sweet!” she exclaimed. “Let me grab my jacket!”

 

“ _ Try _ to stay out of Kyle’s way,” Jane yelled after the younger woman as she left the kitchen. “I don’t want to have to give up Taco Tuesday forever.”

 

“You know we can have Taco Tuesday without Kyle, right?” Darcy said as she returned, struggling into her heavy jacket. She couldn’t seem to get her left arm into the sleeve and ended up turning in a complete circle before Loki sighed and assisted her. “Thanks.”

 

“Yeah, but Kyle gets a discount at Pinches Tacos,” Jane reminded her. “And they give him free virgin margaritas.”

 

“Okay,  _ fine _ ,” Darcy said, exasperated, grabbing her bag from the counter and digging through it for a moment until she found the keys to the van. “Chop chop, Loki. Let’s roll.”

 

Loki should have found the bickering tiresome rather than amusing, but Jane and Darcy got along quite like a bonfire, and though he wouldn’t admit it, he rather enjoyed the heat. He inadvertently met Erik’s gaze as he followed Darcy to the door, and the two men shared a knowing look before Erik glanced away.

 

“Not that Puente Antigua is anything special or anything,” Darcy said as she climbed into the van. “Maybe sometime we can make it out to Sante Fe. If Jane gives us enough time. To be honest, New Mexico isn’t the prime spot of the country, though. Earth is a pretty cool place. You should explore it a bit more. I mean, if you plan on staying.  _ How _ long are you planning on staying?” She looked over at him with an apprehensive expression.

 

_ Don’t know _ , Loki signed, his own expression neutral. 

 

“Oh,” Darcy said uncertainly, and started the van. The trip into the village was silent, then Darcy asked, “Can you even get back to Asgard or are you stuck here?”

 

Loki grimaced. Even if he had a desire to return to Asgard, he had no way to journey there. He had yet to find a Way that led home, and he couldn’t very well call for the Bifrost without a tongue. Darcy continued to stare at him, waiting for an answer.

 

_ Watch road _ , he signed at her.

 

She jerked her head back to face forward just in time to keep the van from swerving from its designated lane. “Okay, got it. Asgard is an off-limit topic,” she said. “Can’t blame me for asking, though. You’re the first alien I’ve ever met. I just wanna know  _ everything _ about your planet.”

 

Urðr’s left tit, this woman never stopped. And now that she was learning sign language alongside him, cutting  _ her _ tongue out wouldn’t help matters any.

 

Loki was fully aware, by painful experience, that oftentimes the truth must be sacrificed in order to properly manipulate someone, so after a calculated moment of hesitation, he schooled his features to something reminiscent of distress and signed,  _ don’t want to return _ .

 

“Oh,” Darcy said again. “Oh. Sorry. I… uh… okay. We don’t have to talk about that if you don’t want to.”

 

With the same pensive expression, Loki replied,  _ thank you _ .

 

Darcy stopped the van in front of a squat, ugly building with the words  _ Post Office _ on a sign in front of it. Loki stared at the words for a few seconds, slightly confused.  _ Post _ meant a pole or support, and  _ office _ was a place of work. He turned to Darcy.

 

_ What this? _ He asked.

 

“Post office,” Darcy said, pointing at the sign.

 

_ I read that _ , Loki replied irritably.  _ What mean? _

 

“Ah. Sorry,” Darcy grimaced. “This is where we get our mail. We have a box here since the lab doesn’t have an address.”

 

Loki scowled. All it took was a simple thing like this to remind him of his limitations with this blasted Miðgarðian language. Why couldn’t they have kept the language of the North Men? Loki was quite familiar with that one.

 

“We’ll only be a second,” Darcy wheedled, opening the door and hopping down the significant distance. “You don’t even have to come in.”

 

Loki stepped out of the vehicle with much more ease. He had accompanied her to further explore the village that would be his home for the near future, not to wait inside the van. 

 

Inside the dull building was a surprising amount of color, mostly in red and green, and there were shelves filled with quaint pictures of animals and winter landscapes. A banner of paper letters hung from the ceiling, reading  _ Merry Christmas _ , but Loki did not know what either of those words meant and was in no mood to ask Darcy.

 

She must have noticed his observations, though, and elbowed him in the ribs. Loki wondered if she would continue that habit if she knew the various ways he was capable of killing anyone who would have presumed such intimacy on Asgard.

 

“It’s horrible,” she told him. “They start decorating earlier each year. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet. And don’t even get me started on Black Friday.” With that baffling statement, she wandered over to a wall that was filled with dozens of small, square doors.

 

Loki sighed and followed her so he could watch her insert a key into the door marked “47” and open it to find it stuffed with paper envelopes. He was somewhat surprised. He had spent a good portion of the last three days exploring the Miðgarðian information network Darcy called  _ the internet _ , and Darcy had shown him the various ways humans communicate. He hadn’t realized that Miðgarð was still so primitive as to use paper correspondence.

 

“Ha. Called it,” Darcy muttered, pulling out the stack of envelopes and flipping through it. “Junk, junk, junk, bill; yuck. Ooh, Culver.” Darcy raised the last envelope to examine it further. “To Jane. Huh. Wonder what this is.” She looked up at Loki. “Culver. That’s my and Jane’s college. I’m a student, she’s a research professor. Which means she never has any students, she just gets to spend a lot of money on her projects. Well, as much money as they’ll give her, which these days isn’t much. This is probably a denial for some grant she’s applied for.”

 

Loki frowned.  _ You need money? _ He signed.

 

“ _ I _ don’t,” Darcy said, shoving two of the envelopes into her bag and carrying the rest to a rubbish bin. “I’m living on FAFSA and state grants for being an orphan. But Jane does, yeah. She only has the lab because her mom pays for it.”

 

That made Loki frown harder. So his hosts had little money to spare, but were still willing to accept and care for a stranger. That changed things. And it gave him an opportunity to alleviate his debt to them. He held his hand out toward Darcy, who stopped to stare at him.

 

“What? What do you want?” she asked.

 

Loki extended his hand again, wriggling his fingers invitingly. Darcy gave him a strange look and slowly place her hand on his.

 

“Okay,” she said slowly. “What are you doing?”

 

Loki turned their hands over so his was on top and then used both hands to close Darcy’s into a fist. He released her and stepped back with a somewhat smug expression. Darcy continued to stare at him in confusion for a moment before slowly unfurling her hand.

 

In the center of her palm was a coin, about the size of Loki’s thumbnail, that had once been used as currency on Vanaheim before the realm followed Asgard’s lead and switched to a credit system. The coin was no longer currency, but had lost little value as it was made of nearly-pure gold.

 

Darcy stared at the coin blankly. “What is this?” she demanded, looking back up at him.

 

_ Payment _ , Loki told her.  _ For clothes _ .

 

“Is this… is this  _ gold _ ?” Darcy hissed at him. Loki nodded. Darcy hissed in a surprised breath. “Do you have any idea how much this is  _ worth _ ?” she shrieked quietly at him. The sleepy man sitting behind the counter turned to look in their direction. Loki fluttered his fingers at the man, diverting his attention.

 

“Gold is like a  _ thousand _ dollars an  _ ounce _ ,” Darcy hissed at him. “This has got to be worth, like,  _ four hundred dollars _ !”

 

Loki shrugged at her. He wasn’t completely familiar with Miðgarðian currency or the rate of exchange between Miðgarð and Asgard. Darcy clenched her fist around the coin.

 

“Your clothes cost  _ sixty-five _ dollars,” she told him in a low voice, glancing at the man behind the counter. “I don’t have change for this.”

 

_ Keep it _ , Loki told her, amused now.

 

“I  _ can’t _ ,” Darcy protested. “This is worth, like, more than my entire wardrobe!”

 

Loki took a gentle hold of Darcy’s wrist and guided her clenched fist to her own chest.  _ Keep it _ , he signed.  _ I have more _ .

 

She blinked three times in quick succession. “How much more?” she asked curiously.

 

_ Much _ , Loki replied.

 

“So… you’re rich,” Darcy said flatly. “You’re like, an alien millionaire and you’re hanging with the geek squad in the ass end of New Mexico. Are you crazy?”

 

Loki shrugged again.  _ Nowhere to go _ , he reminded her.  _ Only know you _ .

 

Darcy’s expression turned calculating. “My internship is up in two months. If you want someone to show you around the planet, I might know a girl.”

 

Loki laughed despite himself.  _ Keep that in mind _ , he assured her.

 

Darcy looked down at her fist for a moment before shoving her hand into the pocket of her trousers to deposit the coin there. “Wow. Okay. Um, are you sure you don’t want change?”

 

Loki nodded again. Darcy shook her head in disbelief. “Okay,” she repeated. “Well, then, Mr Moneybags, let’s finish the rest of the list so we can get back to the lab and knock Jane’s fuzzy socks off.”

 

Their next destination was a hardware store, according to Darcy, and proved only slightly more interesting than the post office. Thankfully Darcy was no more inclined to linger than he was. 

 

“There’s only one grocery store in Puente Antigua and it’s not Walmart, thank god,” Darcy told Loki. “The Walmart here isn’t even a super Walmart, that’s how freakin’ backwater this town is.”

 

As usual, Loki had no idea what Darcy was talking about, so he let her stream of words flow past him. He was more interested in the display of fresh produce in front of him, only a few of which he recognized, and only because Darcy had shown them to him at the lab.

 

Then he caught sight of the apples. He tilted his head. At least  _ those _ were familiar. Miðgarðian apples had obviously not changed in the centuries since he had been here last. He crossed over the the bin and plucked one up, turning it over to examine it.

 

It did not compare to the apples grown in the orchards outside the city on his homeworld. Neither by appearance or smell. The golden apples of Asgard were truly things of magic. The secret to their cultivation was jealously guarded by the royal gardeners. Once a year, after the harvest was complete, each and every Asgardian was given a single apple. The fruit would keep them hale and healthy for the following year, barring grievous injury.

 

And Loki would never taste another one again. His thoughts soured and he glared at the miserable imitation in his hand before he tossed it back into the bin, careless of bruising. He was in no danger of going without the effects of the fruit. He had managed to procure precisely five of the apples without anyone’s knowledge, to use for his own purposes. And it wasn’t that the Asgardians  _ needed _ the apples for their immortality.

 

But Loki’s earliest memory of food was the first apple his mother had fed him as a small child. The perfect crispness, the honey sweetness, the pure nectar. No other fruit in the Nine Realms compared. But that had been taken from him along with his ability to speak. Loki’s revenge on the Jönar would be swift and terrible when he took it.

 

“Hey, Loki, you okay?” The soft voice at his elbow startled him from his dark thoughts. He looked down to see Darcy peering up at him through her glasses. Her brow furrowed in worry. “I’m guessing this has nothing to do with the selection of apples,” she said, tilting her head to one side. 

 

_ No _ , Loki signed and stepped away from her. She really did not have any concept of personal space. For once she didn’t press the issue and merely shrugged to herself, continuing on her tasks. She didn’t bring up the matter again, making small talk as she gathered the rest of the supplies, pointing out the names of everything she chose and how it was spelled. Loki did appreciate that about her. She turned everything into a learning experience.

 

And the faster he learned about this planet, the sooner he could be rid of his reliance on Darcy Lewis and her companions.

 

Darcy gathered a prodigious amount of supplies and required Loki’s help loading them into the back of the van. As he did, though, the hair on the back of his neck prickled, and he scanned the area surreptitiously.

 

In the far corner of the lot, a small black vehicle sat with the engine running. There were two men inside, both wearing black jackets and black lenses over their eyes. Even so, Loki could sense their gaze rested on him and Darcy.

 

Loki gave no outward indication that he had noticed the observers. He had no desire to show his hand early. If someone was watching Darcy, or more likely, him, then he would need to know why and how to prevent it from happening again. Unfortunately, with Darcy present, there was little he could do at the moment.

 

“Oh, shit,” Darcy said after she slid the van door closed. “I forgot a phone charger. Dammit. We got ice cream.” She sighed heavily. “I’m gonna have to come all the way back in tomorrow.”

 

Loki’s interest pricked. It would be an opportunity to study the spies and possibly ascertain what their plans were.  _ Come with you _ , he told Darcy.

 

“Really?” she asked dubiously. “I didn’t think it was  _ that _ exciting.”

 

_ Learning much, _ Loki explained. 

 

“Well, if you put it like  _ that _ ,” Darcy said. “Alrighty.”

 

Loki kept an eye on the black vehicle as they drove away from the grocery store. As he suspected, it began to follow them at a discrete distance. He wondered if it had been following them all day and he had failed to notice. He dismissed the idea as impossible. He surely would have picked up on the sensation of being watched.

 

The vehicle followed them until they turned off the main road onto the gravel path to the lab. Darcy never realized it was there, keeping up her never-ending stream of chatter that Loki did not hear a word of until Darcy poked him in the shoulder.

 

“Hey!” she said loudly.

 

Loki turned his head to give her an imperious look, which she ignored. “You do that a lot,” she told him. “Zone out like that. Are you sure you’re okay? Because if I was stuck on an alien planet after getting the shit beat out of me, I’d be on edge, too. Pretty sure anyone would be.”

 

Loki snorted derisively and turned away from her pointedly. Darcy parked the van in front of the Lab and poked him again. “Hey. If you ever want to talk, you know, about anything… Or not  _ talk _ … you know what I mean. I’m here for you. Okay? It’s what friends do.”

 

Loki couldn’t help but stare dubiously at the human woman. He felt a sudden pity for her. She thought they were  _ friends _ . He had thought her too intelligent for such delusions. Clearly he had overestimated her.  _ Am fine _ , he signed, and got out of the van.

 

“Just ‘cuz you say that doesn’t make it true!” Darcy yelled after him.

 

XxxXxxX

 

Loki, frustratingly enough, dreamed of Darcy that night. She stood under the World Tree, dressed in white, a wreath of oak leaves in her hair. She held a golden goblet in one hand and there were two bowls at her feet. One was filled with blood, and the other with clear, pure water.

 

_ “Choose _ , _ ” _ she told him, indicating the bowls.

 

_ “What are they?”  _ Loki asked, and he nearly wept at the sound of his own voice.

 

Darcy pointed to the bowl of blood with her free hand.  _ “The death of your enemies, but beware, this is your own heart’s blood.” _

 

_ “I will take it,” _ Loki replied instantly.

 

_ “I have not said what the other is,”  _ Darcy pointed out.

 

_ “I do not care,” _ Loki insisted.  _ “I will take the death of my enemies, at any cost.” _

 

_ “Very well,” _ Darcy said solemnly, and stooped to fill the goblet from the bowl of blood. She straightened and held it out to him.  _ “Drink.” _

 

He stepped forward to take the goblet, but when he raised it to his lips, it was empty. Confused, he looked back at Darcy. She held a bronze-bladed knife in her left hand.  _ “How will I defeat my enemies now?”  _ he demanded.

 

Darcy took the goblet back from him, and then, moving faster than a striking serpent, she sliced his throat open with the bronze knife, catching the flow of blood in the golden goblet. Loki fell to his knees in front of her, clutching his throat, feeling hot blood slip between his fingers.

 

_ “Drink,” _ she said again, holding the goblet out to him again.  _ “Drink, son of Odin. Drink to your heart’s content.” _

 

Loki woke up in a cold sweat, his breath fast and shallow, a line of pain across his throat. The small bedroom was dark and overly warm, and he felt trapped in the small space. He left the room and wandered out into the lab itself, which was much cooler.

 

Darcy was asleep on the couch, her laptop on the ground next to her and a blanket slipping off her legs. Loki froze at the sight of her, the strange dream still fresh in his mind. His mother used to speak of dreams and portents, of night-visions and glimpses of the future seen through the dream-world. He had never given much thought to them, as they had never yielded any truth for him.

 

But he could not shake the image of Darcy standing at the roots of Yggdrasil, wise beyond her years, the secrets of Mímir behind her blue eyes. Without thinking, he drifted closer to the mortal. She muttered in her sleep and shifted, the blanket sliding further off of her.

 

Loki sighed to himself and straightened the blanket, cursing himself as he did. He had no use for sentiment, and there was little point of getting attached to any of his hosts. He would leave them as soon as he was able. He turned away, unsure of where he was going, back to his room, perhaps, or to the roof. Maybe he would retrieve his maps and work on them for a while.

 

As he stepped away from the couch, his bare foot caught a small object and sent it spinning under one of the tables. Loki paused, considering for a moment letting it be, but something urged him to at least put it in the rubbish bin. He bent to retrieve it and held it up to the meager moonlight filtering into the lab.

 

It was an acorn.


	5. Knowledge of Things Unseen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Whee! Another update already! I really do love this story. It intrigues me, and is completely different from The Yggdrasil Chronicles. Hope you guys are having as much fun as I am!

As it turned out, Loki _was_ being observed. He was fairly certain he was the target of the surveillance and not Darcy. He had accompanied her back into the village the next day and when they arrived at Walmart, he saw the same black vehicle pull into the lot behind them.

“This will take, like, three minutes,” Darcy promised. “Unless you wanted to look around, see if you needed anything.”

 _Yes, fine,_ Loki signed, but he had no intention of actually accompanying her into the marketplace. When he was shielded from her view as he exited the van, he sent a clone to join Darcy while he circled around the other side of the van. Darcy chattered happily to the clone, unable to tell the difference. There would, of course, be a problem if she insisted on attempting to touch the clone as often as she insisted on touching Loki, but he would deal with that problem later.

Loki veiled himself and cautiously approached the black vehicle. Veils were not fool-proof, and even a human could see through them if he was not careful enough. He walked up behind the vehicle, dropped the veil, and took on the visage of Thor’s battle-sister, Sif. If he was going to make contact with the spies, he certainly did not want them to know _he_ was aware of their attention. He boldly walked up to the passenger side and knocked on the window.

The passenger-side man had blonde hair and appeared younger than his companion. He startled at Loki’s sudden appearance and stared at him through the window for a few seconds before rolling it down.

“Can I help you, ma’am?” he asked. He had a very different accent than Darcy, Jane, or even Erik. How many dialects of English were there in this country?

Loki didn’t bother signing at the human. Darcy said few people outside the deaf and mute knew the language, so he doubted this spy would understand him. Instead he simply reached inside the vehicle and, before the spy could react, pressed the heel of his hand to the man’s forehead.

It took only a fraction of a second for Loki to push his consciousness into the man’s, glance through his most recent memories, and withdraw. He had already stepped from away from the vehicle when the driver drew a weapon from his waist and pointed it at Loki.

Loki recognized the weapon. The Miðgarðian lawkeepers carried the same weapon. Loki had no idea what it actually did, or if it could even harm him, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He formed a spell in his mind and used his left hand to flick it at the weapon, turning it into a black serpent. The snake coiled around the man’s wrist and sank its fangs into his skin.

The human shrieked and shook his arm frantically, trying to dislodge the snake. It obligingly released the human and slithered off in search of the other, whom it would also bite.

Loki walked away from the vehicle, letting Sif’s visage dissolve. The snake was not venomous. Its bite would cause the humans to sleep for a few hours, nothing more. When they woke they would forget the entire interaction.

Darcy had not returned to the van when he arrived and she had not discovered the presence of the clone. Loki leaned against the side of the van, veiled himself, and settled in to wait. After a few moments, the black snake slithered over the hard ground onto his boot. Loki stooped to pick it up. It was sluggish after its journey over the cold ground so he slipped it under his shirt so it could soak up his body heat. He could revert it back to the human weapon, but he might have need of it again in the future, so he decided to keep the serpent as is.

It coiled loosely around his neck under his shirt and went still. As it was a creation of his magic, it was an extension of his will, and would obey his every command. Loki closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the van to sift through the memories he had gathered from the spy.

This was a dangerous way of gathering information. It was often jumbled and piecemeal, lacking context. All Loki was able to filter out was the name of the spy, Alan Byron, the name of his companion, Brandon Hill, and the word “shield.” Loki was not yet certain how valuable any of that information was yet.

He sensed the approach of his clone and straightened. It appeared after a moment, seemingly absorbed by what Darcy was saying. Loki was, of course, completely aware of what his clones were experiencing, so he was able to seamlessly take his clone’s place, having heard the entirety of the mostly one-sided conversation.

“...It’s become such a consumerism holiday that it isn’t even _about_ family and peace and shit anymore. It’s all about spending money so big corporate CEOs can get their million dollar bonuses at the end of the year,” Darcy was saying as she got into the van.

Loki stepped up into the seat as well, nodding encouragingly.

“Like, I get it, not everyone in the country is religious and wants to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus or whatever,” Darcy continued. “But it should still be a time to celebrate family and love and togetherness, you know? I love Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday. My foster mom used to go all out, as much as she could afford, for my brother and me. She was a mean cook, too. She could make the best Christmas dinner out of cans from the food bank.”

Loki now had a vague idea that Christmas was human’s version of Jól, which was not his favorite holiday. He preferred Walpurgisnacht and the revelry of magic and darkness and reverence for the dead. It was a sacred time for seidr-workers such as himself, a time to gather power and learn secrets. But he did not know enough sign language to convey this to Darcy, so he merely nodded again.

“You’re welcome to stay with Jane and I for Christmas,” Darcy told him, staring at him with the keys to the van in one hand. “I don’t know what Erik is doing. I think he’s going back to Sweden. But you can stay with us if you want.”

Loki had no idea what he would be doing or how far his plans would have advanced at this realm’s winter solstice, so he merely signed _thank you_ and let Darcy take that as she would.

“You know, you’re not anything like what I imagined aliens would be,” Darcy commented as she started the van.

Loki frowned. _What mean?_

“I dunno,” Darcy said with a shrug. “I just thought you’d be… you know… more _alien_. I mean, you look exactly like a human.”

Loki grimaced. As far as he could tell, a permanent veil had been placed over him to make him appear Asgardian. Without it he would be as monstrous as any Jötun. Darcy glanced at him sidelong but said nothing when he didn’t reply.

Jane was waiting for them when they arrived. “Kyle came by while you were gone,” she said, glaring at Darcy. “He said someone had seen you and Loki out yesterday and called it in. I had to lie for you. I had to lie to _Kyle_ for you.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry that protecting ET here has jeopardized your crush on Puente Antigua’s finest,” Darcy said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

“I do not have a crush on Kyle,” Jane protested. “He brings me free tacos! That is the extent of our relationship.”

“If free tacos are that important to you, I’ll pay for the damn tacos,” Darcy retorted. She turned to Loki and pointed to Jane. “Distract her with science so she stops complaining about tacos.”

Loki still did not know what tacos were nor why Jane was so upset about them, but he still crossed over to the tables and indicated he was ready to begin work. Erik joined them shortly and for a couple of hours he found a sort of solace in the mindless simplicity.

At least until Jane let out an ear-piercing shriek and leapt backwards away from Loki, nearly knocking over a table. Loki froze in place, scanning the area for any signs of danger and resisting the urge to summon his dagger to hand.

“What the _fuck_ , Jane?” Darcy demanded, appearing startled and tense.

Jane pointed a shaking hand at Loki. “Snake,” she said unevenly. “There’s a--he has a--snake!”

Loki raised a hand to the slumbering serpent still looped around his neck. It stirred at his touch, sufficiently warmed by the heat of his skin, and poked its head out of the collar of his shirt.

“Holy _shit_ ,” Darcy gasped, jumping in her chair. “Why the hell do you have a _snake_ in your shirt, Loki?”

Erik retrieved his glasses from their perch atop his head and placed them back on his face so he could peer closely at the serpent. “That’s not a species native to this area,” he observed. “Wherever did you get it, Loki?”

Loki pressed his lips together and signed _not hurt you_ . He debated briefly showing them how he had created the creature, but decided against revealing the true extent of his magicks. _Cold_ , Loki signed, and then stroked the serpent’s head with one finger.

“It was cold so you _shoved it down your shirt_?” Darcy demanded, putting her computer on the table and getting to her feet. “It could have been venomous! You don’t know anything about American snake species.”

Loki gave her an annoyed look. _Know enough,_ he told her pointedly. She walked over and joined Erik in peering closely at the serpent.

“It’s pretty, though,” she admitted. “Where did you find it?”

“It doesn’t matter where he found it!” Jane protested. “It needs to get out of my lab! Now!”

“Don’t be a freak, Jane,” Darcy admonished. “Can I touch it, do you think?” she asked Loki.

Loki gave the serpent a mental nudge and it uncoiled from his neck, slithering into Loki’s upraised hand and wrapping around his wrist.

“Cool!” Darcy cooed, reaching over to touch its scaly side with one finger. “Wow. What kind of snake do you think it is, Erik?”

“I have no idea,” Erik admitted. “I’m not terribly familiar with snakes native to the American Southwest.”

“Hang on,” Darcy said, and pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Let’s Google this.”

Loki watched dubiously as Darcy examined photos of reptiles on her phone. The serpent was modeled after a harmless species found on Asgard. He highly doubted it existed on Miðgarðr. Sure enough, after a few moments, she gave up.

“I’m not finding anything,” she complained.

“Perhaps it’s an invasive species,” Erik suggested.

“That’s true,” Darcy replied, hurrying back to her computer.

“Why are we still discussing this?” Jane demanded. “Get. It. Out. Of. My. Lab.”

“It’s not hurting anything, Jane,” Darcy said, pulling her computer into her lap and beginning to type. “Right, Loki?”

Loki nodded and absently stroked the serpent’s head with his fingertips. It blinked black eyes at the attention, black tongue flickering out to taste the air.

“There is a strict no pets policy in this lab,” Jane announced, her voice raised. “I can’t work if I know he has a _snake_ wrapped around his neck.”

“Well, we can solve that,” Darcy said, abandoning her computer again. She disappeared from the lab for about ten minutes while Erik took over researching snake species and Jane remained in the furthest corner of the lab from Loki, who found her reaction to his pet highly amusing.

Darcy returned with a large plastic bin, a metal lamp clamped to the side. She set it down next to Loki. The bottom of the bin had been covered with a layer of sand and there was a few stones and dry twigs and a terracotta pot tipped over on its side.

“It’s not much, but it should hold him for a day or two until we can get him a real terrarium. If it is a him, I mean. Could be a her. Hard to tell with reptiles sometimes.”

“We’re not keeping it!” Jane shrieked from the other side of the lab.

“Let him have a pet if he wants one,” Darcy shot back. “He’s an alien from another planet. He’s just curious about earth animals.” She plugged the cord of the lamp in and pointed it inside the bin. “There. Nice and warm for the little guy. Just plop him down in there.”

Loki crouched and lowered his arm into the bin, allowing the serpent to slither onto the sand. It began to nose curiously around its new domicile. _Thank you_ , he signed at Darcy, genuinely touched by her thoughtfulness. He was also intrigued by her complete lack of fear of the the serpent. The main reason Loki felt such an affinity for the creatures was because no one else seemed to enjoy them.

“Does he have a name, yet?” Darcy asked.

Loki shook his head “no.” Why name the creature? It was just a magical construct. It was, for all intents and purposes, a living, breathing serpent, but it would only exist as long as he had need of it.

“Okay. How about Crowley?” Darcy suggested. When Loki stared blankly at her she huffed impatiently. “Remind me to lend you my copy of Good Omens. Neil Gaiman is a master.”

Loki nodded slowly and glanced at the serpent, who was curled directly under the heat lamp. Satisfied the creature was tended to for now, he returned to the tables to resume work. Jane hesitantly joined him after a few more moments cowering in the corner.

So with all of that, Loki had completely forgotten about his dream by dinner.

Neither Darcy nor Jane were very skilled at cooking, apparently, so it was Erik who prepared the meal. Erik did not seem bothered by Loki hanging over his shoulder, pointing to each ingredient he did not recognize and demanding _what this?_ In fact, Erik put Loki to work slicing vegetables, a task Loki only suffered because it enticed Erik to wax poetic about food from his country, which led to an informative monologue on how the Scandinavian countries had evolved from the ancestors Loki was more familiar with.

There was a small part of Loki that enjoyed this, working with Jane, learning ASL with Darcy, even helping Erik prepare a meal. For the first time in his life he did not have anyone expecting anything from him other than his attention. These mortals did not know or care that he was prince. They did not know of his true nature, nor, he suspected, did they even know what a Jötun was. Even his ignorance was welcomed, and seen only as an opportunity, not a hindrance.

Eating with the three mortals was a chaotic affair, as they argued and talked over each other and jumped up to retrieve work or a phone and returned to continue their debate. It was noisy and unmannered yet they made an effort to give him the chance to sign his piece. Both Erik and Jane had joined in their lessons, however haphazardly, and were able to puzzle out what Loki was signing, for the most part.

It almost made Loki forget he could not taste the food he ate.

“...and I’m not saying that Professor Craig got to work the next day to discover that all of the emails he sent to those poor undergrads had been printed out and taped to the hallway outside his office,” Darcy finished her story. “But that’s totally what happened.”

“I heard about that!” Jane exclaimed. “The dean was _furious_. They took away his tenure.”

“Well, he shouldn’t have been threatening female students on scholarships to fail them if they didn’t have sex with him,” Darcy said with a toss of her hair. “And he definitely shouldn’t have threatened _me_.”

Loki snorted and shook his head. He didn’t know the sign for what he wanted to say, so he picked up Jane’s notebook, summoned a pen, and wrote it down before handing it to Erik. The mortal studied the short sentence for a long moment.

“Coward?” he guessed. “You think the professor was a coward?”

Loki nodded. Darcy picked her phone up from the table. “Hang on,” she said. She studied her phone for a moment before putting it back down. “Coward,” she said, and raised her right hand to her mouth, palm out, and tapped her forefinger and thumb together. Then she hovered one hand over her chest and the other over her stomach, fingers spread, and moved them towards each other twice.

Loki flawlessly imitated the sign, filing it away for future reference.

“I agree, though,” Jane added. “Craig is a coward. I’m glad you stood up to him, Darcy. Someone should have done something earlier.”

Loki turned to Darcy. _Smart_ , he signed at her. _Good thinking_.

“Thank you,” Darcy said, and beamed at him. Once more Loki had to strangle unwanted thoughts at the sight of her smile. “I hate confrontation, like, so much, but I wasn’t going to let him threaten my scholarship. I _need_ my college education since I don’t have a nice cushy middle-class American upbringing to springboard off of.”

Jane groaned comically. “Why are you always making me feel guilty of being raised wealthy?”

“I’m not making you feel anything,” Darcy shot back. “If you feel guilty that sounds like you have some internalized issues you need to deal with.”

“Brat,” Jane said, but smiled.

“Oh!” Darcy said, straightening. “Crowley!” Everyone stared at her blankly until she pointed at the plastic bin in the corner. “Crowley the snake. What does he eat? Do you think he’s hungry?”

Jane shuddered in disgust. “Please don’t say mice. Snakes are bad enough. I _really_ don’t want mice in my lab. There’s a reason I’m a physicist, not a biologist.”

“For a snake that size, I would guess it feeds on small rodents, birds, and frogs, depending on its natural environment,” Erik said. “Darcy, isn’t there a pet store in town?”

“There is,” Darcy confirmed. “I can call them and see what they have in regards to snake food. Maybe they’ll have frozen mice and Jane doesn’t have to deal with live ones.”

The serpent was fully capable of hunting for its own food and returning when it was done. Of course, telling Darcy that would reveal the fact that Loki was capable of transforming inanimate objects to animate ones. So he only nodded, making a mental not to release the creature outside before retiring that night.

“Loki said he might be sticking around for Christmas,” Darcy announced. “That would be cool, right, Jane? We could get a tree for the lab or something.”

Jane frowned. “Wait, when is Christmas?”

Darcy gave Jane a dubious look. “December 25th. Same as it is every year, Jane.”

Jane grimaced impatiently. “No, I meant how long. How many days until Christmas?”

“Thirty-seven,” Darcy replied.

Loki grimaced. Thirty-seven days. Thirty-seven days should be more than enough time to find a Way off this realm and travel to it. He was still a little vague on his plans after that, as most of them depended on which realm the closest Way went to. His primary focus was to investigate his own origin, to discover why Odin had taken a Jötun into his home and called him his son. Surely Odin had an ulterior motive of some kind. Loki learned long ago that Odin never did anything without purpose.

And he had no desire to spend whatever passed for Jól with these mortals.

He rubbed his palm down his thigh in a nervous gesture, frowning when he felt an object in his pocket. He reached in and pulled it out. It was the acorn he had found in the lab the previous night. He turned it over in his fingers. It was silvery in color, and perfect in every way, completely unflawed.

“Where did you get _that_?” Darcy asked, staring at the seed in his hand. “There aren’t any oak trees anywhere around here.”

Loki shoved the seed back into his pocket and signed, _somewhere else_.

“Do they have oak trees on Asgard?” Darcy asked with interest.

Loki nodded but got to his feet before she could ask him any other questions. With the discovery of the acorn came the memories of his strange dream. He tried to dismiss the feeling of foreboding that accompanied the memories, but still it lingered.

He glanced aside at Darcy, her hair pulled into a haphazard knot at the back of her head, thick-rimmed spectacles perched on her nose. She looked nothing like the regal figure from his dreams, watching dispassionately while he bled from a severed throat.

The dream meant nothing, he told himself. It was nothing more than the creation of his over-tired mind. There were no portents or auspices to be gathered from it.

He turned down Darcy’s offer of an evening language lesson and retreated to his tiny bedroom. He pushed all the furniture against the wall as much as he could, freeing a space on the floor for him to spread a large rectangle of soft hide, fur side down. There were arcane symbols inked on the skin side, symbols that helped to focus and direct his magic.

On the hide he placed a tiny silver bowl of water from a mountain spring, a feather from one of his father’s ravens, a crystal vial filled with Suttungmjaðar he had stolen from Odin’s cask, and a shard of a mirror that once belonged to his mother. All of them were objects of truth, and would reveal to him what he wished to know.

Loki did not posses the ability to see the future. His mother--Frigga--did. He had always lamented that he had not inherited that skill. Now he knew why. But he could see the truth of things, cutting through lies and misinformation. An irony, he noted with a thin smile, that he could see the truth so clearly but rarely told it.

Once the other objects were arranged, Loki placed the acorn at the center of the hide. He did not know if it had been coincidence or not, finding the acorn after dreaming of Darcy wearing a wreath of oak leaves. But in his mind he associated the acorn with the dream and that would be enough.

Loki murmured the words under his breath, closing his eyes to better focus his efforts. As usual, it only took three repetitions before he fell into the seer trance.

Darcy stood before him again, this time at the edge of a clear spring bubbling up from the rocky ground. She held a golden goblet in one hand and a bronze knife in the other. Her hair fell in chestnut waves under a wreath of oak leaves and acorns, and she wore a simple gown of pure white. Her feet were bare.

 _“Why do you search for the truth?”_ she asked him, watching him with dark blue eyes. _“It has been before you all this time.”_

 _“Who are you?”_ Loki demanded.

 _“I am Truth,”_ Darcy replied evenly. _“I am Knowledge of Things Unseen. But you do not need my help in this, son of Odin.”_

 _“I am not Odin’s son_ , _”_ Loki snapped defensively. _“I do not know whose son I am.”_

 _“I can only speak the truth, son of Odin,”_ Darcy informed him gently. _“If you insist on being obstinate, then ask your question_ . _”_

 _“My dream. What did it mean? Did it carry any truth at all?”_ Loki asked.

Darcy sighed heavily and briefly raised her eyes heavenward. _“I can only speak the truth, son of Odin,”_ she said again with exaggerated patience.

 _“Then answer my question without riddles,”_ Loki said, losing his own patience.

She tilted her head to the side. _“Do you not enjoy riddles, God of Mischief?”_

 _“Only when I am speaking them,”_ Loki told her.

Darcy held out the goblet and the knife. _“Choose,”_ she ordered.

Loki studied both objects for a long time. _“What are my choices?”_ he asked at length.

Darcy raised the knife. _“This is the death of your enemies. But be warned, it comes at great cost.”_

 _“I remember,”_ Loki said dryly. _“What is the other?”_

She raised the goblet. _“This is the answer to all that you seek. But it, too, comes at a great cost.”_

 _“What cost?”_ Loki asked suspiciously.

 _“That which you hold most dear,”_ Darcy warned.

Loki stepped backwards. _“Then I choose neither,”_ he declared.

Darcy cast both the goblet and the knife into the well, which immediately burst into flames. _“Then you will perish,”_ she declared.

The flames overflowed the banks of the spring and flowed toward Loki. He tried to flee but his feet were rooted to the ground. The heat from the flames quickly became overwhelming, and the air burned in Loki’s lungs. Just as the flames were about to reach him, Loki managed to pull himself from the trance.

The bedroom was full of a haze of smoke and a strong smell of burning. Loki waved a hand in the air and the smoke and odor dissipated quickly. He remained where he was, sitting cross legged on the floor, staring at his magical accoutrements.

As he had told the woman in the vision, whoever she truly was, he did love riddles, but only if they were _his_ riddles. He did not like solving them. When he desired information he did not like to wait, or to puzzle it out from clues.

Clearly the Norns were playing with him. He bared his teeth and began cleaning up the remains of the spell. He would do no one’s bidding but his own. Whatever the Norns were up to, he would make his own path.

There was a knock on the door, and he rose to his feet to answer it. Darcy waited on the other side, peering up at him with a concerned expression. Why had his visions chosen her likeness?” he wondered briefly.

“Hey,” she said softly. “You okay? You looked kinda weird when you bailed from dinner.”

 _I am fine_ , Loki assured her.

Darcy reached out and put a hand on his arm. It surprised Loki to no end that he did not immediately flinch or pull away. “You know that we’re here for you, right?” she asked earnestly. “If you need anything, you just have to ask. That’s what friends are for.”

It puzzled Loki, Darcy’s generosity. How could someone who had suffered the childhood she had be so open-hearted and kind?

 _I know,_ Loki said. _Thank you, Darcy_.

She graced him with that dazzling smile of hers and squeezed his arm. “Great. Goodnight!”

Oh, Loki realized suddenly. _That_ was why the vision-woman looked like her.


	6. A Ransom of Gods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please excuse any grammatical/spelling errors. had to post this in a hurry at work and was not able to proof-read.

Darcy insisted on going into the town the next morning to purchase food for Crowley. Loki acquiesced only because when he attempted to release the creature outside after everyone else had retired, the little beast decided that it prefered the warmth of Loki’s skin to the cool winter desert and had refused to uncoil from Loki’s arm.

Darcy, of course, insisted that he accompany her.

Loki had attempted to distance himself from her since his trance and subsequent realization from the night before, but Darcy was not making it particularly easy for him. 

She had asked for his help making breakfast as soon as he had arisen, and badgered him when he refused. Afterwards, Darcy had insisted he go over some of his previous work she was transcribing to make sure she had recorded accurately. Loki had a tendency to mix Asgardian numbers and letters with English ones, and Darcy struggled with the science enough as it was.

When he could find no reprieve from her presence, Loki finally made his escape and retreated to the roof. The shielding spell needed to be renewed, so he busied himself with that. He could not afford to have his presence noticed by an idle glance in this realm’s direction, and he dare not leave anything to chance. One could argue that a single being, immortal or not, could not possibly see one stray Asgardian on a realm full of mortals, but Loki had long since ceased to underestimate Heimdall’s abilities.

Once the spell was refreshed, he seated himself on the edge of the roof facing the desert. The sun was already starting to set. The days here were very short and he found himself missing the long Asgardian winter days. He had always felt invigorated by the cold.

Loki grimaced. Now he knew why, and suddenly his memories of childhood winter lost much of their nostalgia. He focused on the landscape before him to distract himself. Again, he found himself detesting the harsh, barren views of dirt and scrub brush, broken only by the mountains in the far distance. This was an ugly place, and he would be glad to be rid of it.

The serpent, which, unbeknownst to Jane, had spent the day around his neck under his shirt, stirred fretfully at the change in temperature and tightened its hold on him, but not enough to be uncomfortable. He rubbed at its smooth scales through his shirt, transferring a wave of heat that would keep the creature satisfied for a while. It relaxed and went back to sleep.

The door to the roof opened and Loki sighed, detecting Darcy’s presence. She crossed the roof and seated herself on the edge next to him. She remained uncharacteristically quiet.

Loki glanced aside at her. She wore her hair loose today, but she was wearing a knitted hat in a deep purple that matched the scarf around her neck. Her nose was already turning pink from the cold. She swung her legs idly and still said nothing.

Loki finally sighed again and signed,  _ Can I help you? _

Darcy shook her head.  _ Want make sure you are ok, _ she signed back.

Loki tilted his head curiously.  _ Why you signing? _

_ Practice _ , she told him. She leaned forward and reached towards his neck.

Without thinking, Loki grabbed her wrist, stopping her hand. She blinked at him. “Ow,” she said out loud, and tugged against his grip. Loki let go immediately.

_ Sorry, _ he signed with a grimace. He forgot to measure himself to mortal limitations. He couldn’t remember how many writing utensils he had already snapped clean in two.

“No, it was my bad,” Darcy said, rubbing her wrist. “I shouldn’t have reached for you without warning. I used to do that with my foster brother, too, and he would smack me pretty good.”

Loki frowned at her.  _ Why? _ He asked.

“Jesse is non-verbal autistic,” Darcy explained, and then caught herself, no doubt realizing that those words meant nothing to Loki. “Autism is a developmental disorder that happens sometimes to humans. They process stimuli differently and they struggle with a lot of social interaction. He doesn’t talk, can’t really interact that well with people. He’ll never be able to hold a job, or live on his own. My foster mom adopted him pretty soon after he got assigned to her.”

_ Not you? _ Loki signed.

Darcy huffed and shook her head. “Naw. I didn’t need it. I was fourteen when I got placed with Cece. I’d been through, like, six homes in six years and I wasn’t really all that receptive. Cece and I used to get into a lot of fights, but she was the only one who never gave up on me.” She shrugged. “Then I turned sixteen and I bounced. Moved to LA with some friends, got a job at a skeevy diner working overnights, ran with the wrong crowds. I got picked up by cops as a ‘person of interest’ in a criminal mischief case and Cece drove all the way down to bail me out.”

Darcy kicked her legs in silence for a few seconds before continuing the story. “She told me I didn’t have to stay with her if I didn’t want to, but that I would always be welcome, as long as I kept my nose clean and had a job. Or was going to school. So I got my GED, and started at the local community college. It was good. I realized that it was home. First one I ever had. By then I was eighteen and there was no point in Cece adopting me. But she’s more my mom than my birth one, that’s for damn sure.”

Loki studied the young mortal while she spoke. He could tell there was pain behind the story, but it didn’t stop her from sharing it.  _ Tell me about your brother, _ he asked.

Darcy immediately brightened. “Jesse’s a good kid,” she said. “He’s...fifteen, now. Yeah. He turned fifteen this year. He loves to read, and he’ll ready anything. You should have seen him when Cece got him a kindle. He doesn’t talk much but he was bouncing around holding it over his head. It was so cute.” She laughed at the mental image but then sobered. “Oh, yeah, a kindle is an electronic device you can download and read books on.”

Loki nodded and gestured for her to continue. Asgard had such devices, even though there were still collections of physical books in many libraries, including the royal one.

“He reads at a really advanced level,” Darcy went on. “Loves anything sciencey. He was pretty interested when I told him I got an internship with Jane. He printed out all of her articles and gave them to me. He’s sweet.” She smiled softly, her eyes very far away.

Loki waited until she focused on him again and asked,  _ He talks through sign? _

“Yeah,” Darcy replied. “His original foster family did a pretty good job of teaching him but when he got older he was too much for them to handle. That’s why he got put with Cece.” She took a deep breath. “What about you? Any siblings?”

Loki’s mood turned sour at the thought of Thor, but he found himself reluctant to take that out against her. So he replied with stiff motions,  _ Brother. Older. _

“Ah,” Darcy said knowingly. “Not a good relationship, huh?”

_ No, _ Loki signed.

“Sorry,” Darcy said, subdued. She waited a long moment before speaking again. “Does he know where you are right now?”

_ No _ , Loki signed again.  _ No one knows. _

“Oh,” Darcy said, startled. She blinked at him for a few seconds. “Do you… Do you  _ want _ anyone to know where you are right now?”

Loki snorted softly and shook his head, not meeting Darcy’s eye.

“I see,” she said, and fell silent again. “You know we like having you here, right? Jane is really excited to work with you, and I think you’re pretty cool, too. Even Erik thinks you’re interesting, even if he won’t admit it.”

Loki frowned and turned to look at her.  _ Cold? _ He signed.

“No,  _ cool _ ,” Darcy corrected. “It means interesting or neat. You use it to describe things you like. You know, it’s cool.” She elbowed him with a grin.

Loki flinched before he could stop himself and Darcy froze. Without speaking she edged several inches away from him and clasped her hands between her knees, staring down at them with a forlorn expression. Loki eyed her sidelong but did nothing. It would be for the best if she were to learn to keep her distance. He was leaving, and soon, and no matter the brilliance of her smile, she had no place in his plans for the future.

“What happened?” Darcy whispered.

He tilted his head at her questioningly. She gestured vaguely.

“Why don’t you want anyone to know where you are?”

Loki scowled.  _ Too many questions, _ he signed irately, and got to his feet. Without looking back at the mortal woman, he stepped off the edge of the roof. It was barely twenty feet to the ground, and he landed easily, knees bent.

“Holy  _ shit _ !” he heard Darcy exclaim above him. He ignored her and walked out toward the desert. It seemed the only peace he would get would be in the wilderness.

He walked until the night was complete and the sky overhead was alight with stars. The temperature plummeted and his serpent protested the cold by tightening around his neck once more. Loki sketched a warming spell with one hand and laid it on the creature. It uncoiled and opened its mouth wide, scraping the tips of its fangs against his skin.

Loki frowned as he reached up and peeled it away from his neck. The serpent should not be developing any sort of personality of its own, but it was clearly doing just that, and displaying an intelligence completely inappropriate for its species. He held it up to his face and it stared back at him with beady black eyes, black tongue flickering out to taste the air.

You are a strange beast, Loki thought to himself. The creature slithered out of his hold and up his arm under his sleeve, coiling around his bicep. He let it be for the moment.

Loki walked into the desert. He was in good health now, after nearly a week of healing, and he could cover a great deal of ground very quickly. It only took him a couple of hours to reach the Way to Jötunheimr.

It had taken him decades of training to even be able to see the Ways, much less track their locations. While Thor and his friends played at war on the training fields he pored over every tome on magic he could put his hands on. They mocked him brutally for it, called him weak, called him a coward. So he hid his studies and joined them on the training fields, and he trained harder than all of them, until he was their equal or even better. But they still looked down on him, dark and slightly-built. Muttered behind their hands at how unfortunate it was that Thor was saddled with such a brother.

Loki’s mouth twisted into a cruel sneer. Surely they must have rejoiced at the news of his death, rejoiced that the royal family was burdened no more. He wondered if they would send off an empty longboat for custom’s sake, if they would gather on the shores of the endless ocean and raise the ljós in his memory. More likely than not they would do nothing, and his name would pass into infamy, a cautionary tale to tell the children on a winter’s night.

_ Do as you're told, or the Jötnar will steal you away, just like poor Prince Loki. He was always causing trouble and see what happened to him _ .

A snarl bubbled up from his chest.  _ How _ had Odin managed to keep his heritage a secret for all those years? What purpose did he have in lying? Why take the spawn of your enemy and raise it in your own household, call it your son? What had the Allfather have planned for Loki?

Loki took a deep breath and shoved the anger and frustration down, deep into the dark, cold place at the pit of his stomach. Those emotions would not help him now.

He stared at the Way, shimmering on the barest edge of his senses, and he was tempted to walk through it, to seek out the Jötnar who had tortured him and extract his vengeance. To track down anyone who knew of the babe Odin had stolen from the frozen planet.

But he knew that would be an exercise in futility. He had managed to escape his first trip to Jötunheimr unscathed only because he offered the Jötnar something they wanted more than to kill him. Judging by the reactions of the Jötnar that had captured him, they would not take kindly to one of their own fighting alongside the Asgardians. And then there was the question of his size. The Jötnar did not seem to view his shorter stature in good light.

No, a trip to Jötunheimr would not benefit him at all at the moment. In time, he promised himself. He would make them pay for their crimes soon. But not yet.

That was not why Loki was here. He had returned to this place because he was tired of his inability to find a useful Way out of this realm. But all the Ways were interconnected, and he knew a spell that would briefly reveal all of them to him.

It also had the potential to drain his life force if he did not perform it exactly correct, but Loki was fairly confident he would not fail.

Fairly.

The spell required extensive preparation and Loki worked deep into the night, carving lines and symbols into the hard, dry dirt surrounding the Way, setting out hundreds of tiny, green were-lights at points of power.

When he was finally finished, he stood in front of the Way, his athame in his left hand and a shard of seer’s crystal in his right. He could not chant the words aloud but he could create and hold a spell in his mind just as easily.

He called upon Dáinn and Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór, the four stags that lived and fed on Yggdrasill. He called upon Veðrfölnir the hawk and the eagle. He called upon Ratatoskr the squirrel. He did not call upon Níðhöggr the serpent, because the serpent never revealed its knowledge to the living.

There was a moment of breathless anticipation, a moment of last-minute doubt as to whether or not he’d done the spell perfectly.

It came like a flash of lightning striking his skull. For one perfect, eternal second, he could see the universe, Yggdrasill, and all its many branches, the Ways and means that bound it all together, every star and every realm and all the void in between.

Then it was gone, and in its absence was pain.

XxxXxxX

Loki did not know where he was when he woke up. It was cold, and he was lying on hard, dry ground. The stars were fading into dawn overhead, and he did not recognize their placement. His head was spinning still. He had performed a very large and very dangerous spell, of that he was certain. He simply could not remember what it was or why.

When the ground finally felt still below him, he pushed himself into a sitting position and looked around. He was in a desert. He frowned. There was no desert on Asgard. Clearly he had left Asgard for some reason, but for what he could not imagine.

His mouth was dry. He swallowed painfully, and then froze.

His tongue. Was  _ gone. _

It all came rushing back at once. The greatest trick he ever played and how it had backfired horribly, the Jötnar tearing at his skin and crushing his bones, cold iron between his teeth, the taste of his own blood, finally making his escape…

Loki buried his face in his hands and tried to regulate his frantic breathing. But the sight of his own skin turning blue and scarred was bright and fresh in his memory. He was a  _ monster _ , no more than a beast masquerading as a man, lying and lied to. And all for what? So the Allfather could parade his war trophy in front of him whenever he desired? So Odin could gaze upon him and say, “See how I have tamed the demon. Surely I have victory over the Jötnar. See their spawn that obeys all of my commands.”

And Thor, did he know? Surely he had to. Why else would he have worked so hard to keep Loki in the shadows, to best him in all things, to win the affection of the Asgardian people. Loki could so easily imagine the look of horror and disgust on Thor’s face if he could see Loki in his true form, with blue skin and red eyes and sharp teeth and claws.

Loki wanted to scream. He wanted to fight something, someone. To strike and tear and kill and destroy. But he was all alone in the desert on Miðgarðr with his powers drained and a splitting headache.

He felt something crawl over his boot and he lifted his head to see the black serpent slithering up his leg. For a moment he was tempted to take it in his hands and squeeze the life out of it, just to work out the rage he had burning in his chest. He was even reaching for it with one hand before he stopped.

_ Crowley _ . That was what Darcy had called it. A strange name, unpleasant to the ear. But she had named the creature. She had confirmed its existence.

He stared down at the little beast and it stared back at him, beady eyes bright and tongue flickering. It had no idea of the danger it was in. 

Darcy would not want the creature harmed, and Loki had no idea why that was important to him at all, but he gently picked up the serpent and lifted it to his shoulder, where it could coil around his neck under his shirt.

Loki took a deep, slow breath and closed his eyes, calming his mind and focusing his attention. He had risked a great deal to perform the spell. He would be sorely disappointed if he had garnered nothing from it. But it turned out not to be in vain. Loki could not remember every Way he had seen, but he did remember three that led from Miðgarðr; two to Vanaheimr and one to Álfheimr. Any of them could be quite useful.

Loki found himself quite wearied, but he knew he could not stay in the desert without food or drink for long, so he rose to his feet and began the trek back to the laboratory.

There were three large black vehicles parked in front of the laboratory, Loki noted as the building came into view. He could hear voices, Jane’s and Darcy’s, shrill and distressed. He quickened his pace. Something was wrong.

He veiled himself as he got closer and saw there were men in black clothing loading Jane’s equipment into the vehicles. That was what Jane and Darcy were so upset about. Both women were shrieking at a man standing to one side, also wearing black with dark sunglasses. He seemed impervious to Darcy and Jane’s ire. Loki wondered where Erik was.

“You can’t do this!” Jane was exclaiming, waving one hand around. “My research is privately funded! You don’t have jurisdiction!”

“We believe you have had access to information that poses a threat to national security, which  _ is _ my jurisdiction,” the man with the sunglasses said calmly.

“National security?” Darcy demanded. “You have  _ got _ to be kidding. She’s an  _ astrophysicist _ , not a nuclear engineer!”

The man removed his sunglasses. “Have you or have you not been sheltering an alien life form for the last six days?”

For a brief second both women fell silent, then started speaking again at the same time.

“What are you even  _ talking _ about?” Jane demanded.

“Alien? Pff, what alien? Aliens don’t exist. Are you crazy?” Darcy said.

“A blood sample of questionable origin was submitted for testing at the local hospital,” the man in the sunglasses said with an air of unending patience. “We tracked him to this location where we’ve had him under observation, confirming that he has been staying here.”

“You’ve been  _ watching _ us?” Jane’s voice jumped another octave. 

“We don’t need a warrant for observation, Dr Foster,” the man with the sunglasses told her. “And if you are unwilling or unable to reveal his location, we will have to take other measures.”

They were looking for him, Loki observed, and they were ransoming Jane’s work to get to him. Loki waited a few more moments to see what Jane and Darcy would do. Any smart person would give up his location to save themselves.  _ He _ certainly would.

“We don’t know where he is,” Darcy said stoutly, crossing her arms. “He left and he never came back.”

“When did he leave?” the man with the sunglasses demanded. “Where did he go?”

“He left last night,” Darcy said sullenly. “And we don’t know where he went. He just left.”

“Did he give you any indication where he might have gone?”

“No,” Jane jumped in, far too quickly for someone who truly didn’t know. “No clue.”

Ah. The mortal women clearly suspected he had returned to the location they found him. But they were not giving that information up. They were craftier than he gave them credit for, giving just enough of the truth to be believable.

The man with the sunglasses nodded. “We’ll need both of you to come with us, as well. You’ll need to be debriefed on your time with the alien life form.”

“His name is  _ Loki _ ,” Darcy snarled. “And if you think we’re going anywhere with you without a warrant, buddy, you’re sadly mistaken.”

“SHIELD doesn’t require a warrant when we’re acting in the interest of National Security, Miss Lewis,” the man with the sunglasses said with a faint sigh.

Loki frowned at that. He wasn’t particularly pleased that Jane’s equipment was being confiscated, now they were taking the women in for questioning? He was intimately familiar with government questioning, having performed a great deal of it on his father's--no,  _ Odin’s _ \--behalf. There was a good chance if Jane and Darcy went with this man, they would never be seen again.

And Loki owed them more than to leave them to that fate.

Loki dropped his veil and strode toward the laboratory, stepping around one of the large black vehicles into sight of the mortals. Darcy saw him first, her eyes widening. She raised one hand to wave him back, but then it was too late.

When the men in black caught sight of him, they drew their weapons and dropped into combat stances. Loki raised one eyebrow and lifted his hands to shoulder height, presenting a non-threatening image.

“No, Loki, what are you doing?” Darcy hissed at him. Loki shook his head at her warningly.

“Loki, is it?” the man with the sunglasses said mildly. “I’m Agent Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, also known as SHIELD. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Loki gave him a rather disdainful look and remained where he was. There was a long, awkward silence until Agent Coulson blinked and grimaced. “Ah, yes, you--uh--you communicate exclusively through ASL, correct?”

“Yeah, he had his  _ tongue _ cut out,” Darcy snarled at him.

Loki lowered his hands but that only caused the men surrounding him to tense and raise their weapons.

“Stand down,” Agent Coulson commanded. “Stand  _ down _ ,” he said again when it seemed his men were reluctant to obey. Only once the weapons were lowered did Loki attempt to reply.

_ Not hurt anyone _ , Loki signed.  _ I was lost. Came here mistake. _

“I understand that,” Agent Coulson said before Darcy could translate. “But I am sure you understand that we have a few questions for you. We don’t get extraterrestrial visitors very often.”

Loki turned to look at Darcy and Jane, who were staring back at him with wide, worried eyes. He nodded to them encouragingly and turned back to Agent Coulson.  _ I go with you. Darcy, Jane stay here. Jane’s work stays here. _

“No, Loki,” Darcy hissed at him again. “You have no idea what they want to do to you!”

“I assure you we have no intention of harming Loki, Miss Lewis,” Agent Coulson assured her.

Loki snorted.  _ You not hurt me, _ he told Agent Coulson.  _ You not bring enough men _ .

Agent Coulson narrowed his eyes a bit at that. “So just to be clear, you will come willingly with us if Miss Lewis and Dr Foster are allowed to remain here?”

Loki pointed to the equipment in the back of the vehicles.  _ Stay here _ , he signed firmly.

Agent Coulson tilted his head to the side thoughtfully.

“Loki, you don’t have to do that for me,” Jane said in a low voice. “You need to leave now, while you still can. Just go.”

“Let’s not do anything rash, Dr Foster,” Agent Coulson chastised. “SHIELD is willing to compromise in order to reach the best solution.” He turned back to Loki. “Very well. Dr Foster and Miss Lewis can remain here at the laboratory with their work as long as they agree not to attempt to leave town.”

Loki caught Darcy’s eye.  _ Good? _ He signed at her.

_ No _ , she signed back, scowling at him.

_ Best for you, _ he told her.

_ Not for you _ , she protested.

_ Not worry about me, _ he signed.  _ I am fine. They can’t hold me _ .

Darcy’s expression softened, but only into one of concern.  _ Come back _ , she asked him. Loki only offered her a tight smile. He would make no promises.

Coulson signalled to his men, and they  began bringing the equipment back into the lab under Jane’s baleful eye. Darcy crossed over to stand next to Loki. She put her hand on his arm. He could feel the heat of her skin through the fabric of his shirt.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said, echoing Jane’s words.

He looked down at her upturned face, the face that haunted even his dreams. He wished again, as he wished a hundred times a day, that he could speak so he could more easily express himself. Instead he merely signed,  _ payment. _

“You don’t owe us anything,” Darcy insisted, tightening her hand on his arm.

Loki gave her another tight smile.  _ Yes _ , he said.

Darcy frowned and was about to speak when she abruptly focused on his neck. “Crowley!” she exclaimed, and darted back inside the lab. She reappeared a moment later with the serpent’s temporary home and shoved it into the hands of one of Coulson’s men. “He’ll need this,” she said sullenly.

“For what?” the man asked stupidly, looking down at the sand-filled box.

“For his pet snake,” Darcy said, pointing to Loki’s neck were the serpent was poking its head out curiously.

Several of the men nearest to Loki immediately recoiled in horror, and Loki smiled at their reactions. Coulson peered warily at the creature.

“Hmm,” was all he said, and gestured for the man to put the box in one of the vehicles. “Loki, after you,” he continued.

_ Prince _ , Loki signed, his expression returning to disdainful. Agent Coulson stared at him for a beat.

“I beg your pardon?” he asked.

_ You call me Prince Loki, _ Loki signed, using the sign name Darcy had helped him create.  _ I am son of king _ . The words felt like a lie, but he would use them to his advantage.

“I apologize, your Highness,” Agent Coulson said with a flat expression. “If you would,  _ Prince _ Loki.”

Loki nodded once and stepped toward the vehicle Agent Coulson had indicated. He spared one more backwards glance at Darcy.

_ Be careful _ , she signed.

He nodded once more and slid into the vehicle. Agent Coulson closed the door, cutting off his view of Darcy. Loki took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. It was time to plan.


	7. A Plan Is Formulated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys. Sorry it's been so long. I haven't had time to do a lot of writing thanks to a close relative passing away, preparing to move apartments, and planning a wedding. Also my laptop has been out of commission for a few months and I've only just now gotten a bluetooth keyboard so I can write on my tablet and phone. That's right: this chapter is brought to you by the brand new Samsung Galaxy S9, upon which I can write and post onto AOS. Nifty.

> Agent Coulson took Loki into the desert. They drove for precisely four hours and twenty-seven minutes, due northwest. When they arrived at their destination, it was a low, sprawling facility, unremarkable in every way except for the fact it was in the middle of nowhere off a rarely-used paved road.
> 
>  
> 
> He was escorted inside by six guards, down an empty hall, and into a white room with no windows. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all white plastic. There was a white plastic bench in one corner. A neat stack of white clothes waited on the bench.
> 
>  
> 
> Coulson came into the room with Loki. “We’re just going to have to go through some decontamination protocols. Make sure you aren’t carrying any harmful bacteria.”
> 
>  
> 
> Loki gave him a withering look and turned on his heel. When he strode toward the door, two of the guards stepped into the doorway, hands on their weapons.
> 
>  
> 
> “I’m afraid I am going to have to insist,” Coulson said, sounding apologetic.
> 
>  
> 
> Loki scowled at him.  _ I here six days. I make anyone sick, happen before now _ , he signed.
> 
>  
> 
> “It’s just a precaution,” Coulson replied.
> 
>  
> 
> Loki planted his feet. He was loathe to reveal to the mortal precisely what he was capable of, but he would  _ not _ be treated like some kind of scientific experiment.  _ No _ , he signed.
> 
>  
> 
> “Contrary to what you may believe, your Highness, but I don’t like making threats,” Coulson told Loki. “It would be in both of our best interests if you were to cooperate with us.”
> 
>  
> 
> Loki ground his teeth together. He was not fluent in ASL, having had only six days to learn and practice it. He was not nearly as eloquent as he was accustomed to being. He was, however, stubborn, and more stubborn than anyone else he knew, including Thor. He crossed his arms and shook his head.
> 
>  
> 
> Coulson narrowed his eyes, staring at Loki for a long, silent moment before nodding and giving him a tight smile. “Okay. We’ll take the risk. Dr Foster and Miss Lewis both appeared to be fine.” He gestured toward the door and the guards stepped side. Loki gave them both the dirtiest look he could manage and stepped past them into the hall.
> 
>  
> 
> There was a new mortal leaning against the wall, waiting for them. He was of average height for a mortal, which placed him about three inches shorter than Loki, with dark blonde hair that stuck up in the back and the last vestiges of a black eye. He was dressed all in black, but not clothing like Coulson’s. He had a weapon strapped to his thigh and he wore fingerless gloves. He had small devices in and around both ears. He straightened when Coulson stepped out of the white room. He pointed at Loki with an inquisitive expression and Coulson nodded.
> 
>  
> 
> The man turned to Loki and began to sign along as he spoke. “I’m Clint. Coulson here says you might need a few lessons in ASL.”
> 
>  
> 
> Clint’s sign name was the letter “C” with the thumb drawn back along the inner forearm. Coulson’s sign name was exactly the same as the sign for “cheese.”
> 
>  
> 
> _ I know some _ , Loki signed back.  _ Want learn more _ .
> 
>  
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> Clint bobbed his head and pointed to his ear, turning to show the device there. “I’m hard of hearing,” he spoke and signed. “I’m fluent in ASL and I can give you some pointers.”
> 
>  
> 
> _ Thanks _ , Loki signed politely.
> 
>  
> 
> “Agent Barton and I will be asking you a few questions,” Coulson said, and indicated a direction down the hall. “If you’ll just follow Agent Barton here.”
> 
>  
> 
> Coulson and the other guards fell in behind Loki as he followed Barton. Loki considered veiling himself and breaking off to explore the facility, leaving a clone to be interrogated by the mortals. After a moment’s debate, he did just that. It was tricky to create the clone and draw the veil around himself in the same second, but he’d had quite a bit of practice.
> 
>  
> 
> He pressed his back to the wall and watched the entourage pass him, one of the guards coming within inches of brushing against him. As long as he gave them no reason to lay hands on the clone, no one should be the wiser.
> 
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> Loki turned and wandered in the opposite direction, no destination in mind as of yet. For now he simply wanted to explore as much of the facility as he could before the clone was discovered.
> 
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> 
> XxxXxxX
> 
>  
> 
> By the time Erik returned to the lab, Jane and Darcy had managed to bring themselves down to a frenetic sort of calm.
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> Jane was on the phone with her mother’s lawyer and Darcy was frantically typing on her laptop.
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> Erik looked around at the displaced equipment, the two women, and the distinct lack of Loki.
> 
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> “What happened?” he asked, bewildered.
> 
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> Jane whirled around on the older scientist. “ _ Where were you _ ?” she hissed at him, furious.
> 
>  
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> “I was trying to access the archives at the Scandinavian History Museum, and your ISP won’t let me do it from here,” Erik explained, taken aback at her fury. “Where is Loki?”
> 
>  
> 
> “Well, if you had  _ been _ here, you would have seen him stuffed into a nondescript black SUV by a bunch of men in nondescript black suits,” Jane informed him.
> 
>  
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> Erik went pale. “SHIELD?” he asked hoarsely.
> 
>  
> 
> “Yeah, them,” Darcy added, looking up from her computer. “I’ve put out a few feelers on web anarchist sites but no one’s seemed to have been able to get through their firewalls.”
> 
>  
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> “Web anarchists?” Erik echoed, feeling quite lost.
> 
>  
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> “Hackers, Erik,” Jane said impatiently. “She means hackers. And what was so goddamn important at the history museum that you had to abandoned us like that?”
> 
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> “I didn’t abandon you,” Erik protested. “I was coming back. I just wanted more documents on the Ancient Norse language. I thought it might help us communicate with Loki a little better.”
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> Jane and Darcy both looked mildly sheepish for a few seconds before their determination returned. Jane growled in frustration and hung up her phone.
> 
>  
> 
> “Walter says that trying to make a civil suit against SHIELD is futile. They’re a shadow organization. The court system can’t even acknowledge they exist, much less hear a case against them.”
> 
>  
> 
> “How is a civil suit going to get Loki back?” Darcy demanded. “He’s not a US citizen. He’s not even an  _ earth _ citizen.”
> 
>  
> 
> “And hacking into SHIELD will help get him back?” Erik asked dubiously.
> 
>  
> 
> “We’ll at least know where they took him,” Darcy snapped, and then rubbed her eyes. “Sorry. Sorry. I don’t mean to bite your head off, but they just  _ took _ him. I mean, he’s an  _ alien _ . God only know what they’re going to do to him.” She dropped her hand and gestured to the corner where the terrarium had rested. “They even took Crowley.”
> 
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> “You made them take Crowley,” Jane reminded her.
> 
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> “Loki is really attached to him!” Darcy protested. “I thought having him might make him less scared or something.”
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> “Loki didn’t look scared,” Jane said, rubbing the back of her head with her cell phone. “He even told that Coulson person that Coulson hadn’t brought enough people to force him to do anything.”
> 
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> “Well, if Loki really is the God of Mischief,” Erik said calmly, “He wouldn’t have been lying.”
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> Darcy stared at Erik for a few heartbeats. “What do you mean?” she asked.
> 
>  
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> “What do you know about Norse mythology and legend?” Erik asked her.
> 
>  
> 
> “Um, minimal,” Darcy replied. “Inner city public school education here.”
> 
>  
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> “Well, the stories I grew up hearing said that Loki was the cleverest of all the gods,” Erik said. “He may have caused a great deal of trouble, but he always found his way out of it again. The stories also say that he could make himself invisible and change shape, and that he was very skilled in magic.”
> 
>  
> 
> “Magic,” Jane echoed flatly. “We’re not talking like,  _ actual _ magic.”
> 
>  
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> “Well, we know he’s telekinetic,” Darcy said, perking up. “And he totally set that space heater on fire. It’s completely possible he has super-human abilities that the Vikings perceived as magic.”
> 
>  
> 
> “Possible  _ how _ ?” Jane demanded.
> 
>  
> 
> “Well,  _ if _ everything he has told us has been truth, then he belongs to an ancient and highly-developed alien race,” Erik told her. “I think they might have evolved to the point where they had the ability to harness parts of their brain that give them… powers… we haven’t seen in humans yet.”
> 
>  
> 
> “Ok, interesting, but none of this helps us get Loki back,” Darcy said impatiently. “How are we gonna do that?”
> 
>  
> 
> “Are you suggesting we go against an intelligence agency the US government won’t even admit is real in order to rescue an alien?” Erik asked sceptically. “This isn’t E.T., Darcy.”
> 
>  
> 
> “You’ve actually seen that movie?” Darcy asked. “I’m impressed.” Her laptop dinged and Darcy looked back down at the screen. “Hold that thought, I’ve just got an IM.”
> 
>  
> 
> “From who?” Jane demanded, crossing over to stand behind her.
> 
>  
> 
> “Uh… a guy I knew in the foster system, like, ten years ago. We were both at this halfway house for delinquent teenagers who were wards of the state.”
> 
>  
> 
> “What did he say?”
> 
>  
> 
> “Nothing,” Darcy said, frowning. “It’s a link to a dark web chat room.”
> 
>  
> 
> “Dark web?” Erik asked.
> 
>  
> 
> “It’s where all the illegal stuff happens,” Darcy explained impatiently. She clicked on the link and her screen went black.
> 
>  
> 
> Jane gasped. “What happened?”
> 
>  
> 
> “It’s okay,” Darcy assured her. A green cursor blinked in the upper left hand corner of the screen. She began to type.
> 
>  
> 
> _ I was told you could help me _ .
> 
>  
> 
> There was a long, tense silence between the two scientists and the intern, until a line of green symbols appeared on the screen under Darcy’s sentence.
> 
>  
> 
> _ I was told you’d be asking. What do you you need? _
> 
>  
> 
> Darcy pumped her fist in the air. “Yes!” she crowed.  _ Information from SHIELD. _
> 
>  
> 
> _ That’s a tall order, _ was the reply.  _ Rising Tide has been working cracking that egg for months now. _
> 
>  
> 
> “Rising Tide?” Erik said, alarmed. “Darcy, those aren’t hackers, those are cyberterrorists.”
> 
>  
> 
> “They prefer to be called hacktivists,” Darcy told him, already typing.  _ They took a friend of mine. I need to find him. _
> 
>  
> 
> _ Rising Tide is going to make another attempt on SHIELD servers in 13 hours. What’s your friends name? I’ll look for it if I can. _
> 
>  
> 
> _ They’ll call him Loki, _ Darcy typed.
> 
>  
> 
> There was another long pause before the reply came.
> 
>  
> 
> _ Got it. Splice says you’re a St Agnes kid, too? _
> 
>  
> 
> Darcy laughed. “Would you look at that,” she murmured.  _ Yeah. I guess we gotta stick together. _
> 
>  
> 
> _ Something like that. Keep you posted. _
> 
>  
> 
> Darcy’s screen reverted back to its original configuration, the chat screen gone without a trace.
> 
>  
> 
> “How likely is this to come back and bite us in the ass?” Jane asked, sounding nervous for the first time.
> 
>  
> 
> “How bad do you want Loki back?” Darcy demanded. She closed her laptop. “We can’t trust the government to just release him once they talk to him. He’s an  _ alien _ . Maybe the first actual one to ever come to earth in modern times.”
> 
>  
> 
> “That we know of,” Jane said. “There could have been more, but SHIELD made them disappear.”
> 
>  
> 
> “All the more reason for us to get him back on our own,” Darcy retorted.
> 
>  
> 
> “And what, exactly, are we going to do  _ after _ we rescue Loki?” Erik asked pointedly, crossing his arms.
> 
>  
> 
> “Get him back to Asgard, obviously,” Darcy said. “Or at least off earth.”
> 
>  
> 
> “He has access to the Bifrost,” Erik reminded her. “He could leave whenever he wants to.”
> 
>  
> 
> “I don’t think he can,” Darcy said, rubbing her bottom lip. “From what I’ve managed to gather, no one back home knows he’s alive. Maybe he can’t operate the Bifrost from here. Maybe it’s something that has to be done from Asgard.”
> 
>  
> 
> Jane nodded slowly. “Okay… possible, but if he can’t operate the Bifrost from here, how will we get him off earth?”
> 
>  
> 
> “That I don’t know,” Darcy said with a shrug. “I’m poli sci, not an astrophysicist. So it’s really convenient I just so happen to have the two most brilliant astrophysicists in the whole planet in the room with me.”
> 
>  
> 
> Erik looked at Darcy askance. “Are you suggesting we  _ build _ a Bifrost? Out of what? Used cars? Junkyard parts?”
> 
>  
> 
> “Well, if anyone can figure out how to harness an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, it’s us,” Jane said firmly. “Loki left a lot of material behind. Maybe something in there will help us.”
> 
>  
> 
> “Then it is a good thing I left to get those documents,” Erik said, sounding resigned. “Because all of it has to be interpreted into English, first.”
> 
>  
> 
> XxxXxxX
> 
>  
> 
> The base turned out to be rather disappointing, actually. The parts of it Loki was able to access were similar to Jane’s lab, jull of white boards, computers, and blinking lights. He scanned the formulas on the boards and was briefly surprised at the advancement of the maths, but it was, after all, a secret research facility in the middle of the desert. If the Miðgarðians were going to work with advanced maths, it would be here.
> 
>  
> 
> There was a whole section of the base Loki could not access at all. The doors required both hand and eye scans, were solid metal, and had magnetic shielding, all of which stymied his magics. There were a few complex spells he could perform to get past the doors, but not without gathering a great deal of attention. 
> 
>  
> 
> So it was with a measure of disappointment that he silently returned to the room where his clone was being asked inane questions by Agent Coulson.
> 
>  
> 
> As was his habit, he had mixed truth with half-truth and outright lie. He told them he had come to earth injured and in need of medical attention, and was honest with how he had met Darcy and the scientists. He declined to tell them where he’d come from and what species he belonged to, as those were both rather sore subjects at the moment. And he lied and told them yes, he had a ship, but that it burned up in the atmosphere and he had only escaped in a life pod. Which he then refused to reveal the location of.
> 
>  
> 
> “I just don’t understand why you’re making this so difficult for us, your Highness,” Coulson said when Loki indicated he had given them all the information he intended.
> 
>  
> 
> Loki frowned at the human who was sitting on the edge of the desk opposite Loki’s chair in an attempt to make the interrogation feel less formal. 
> 
>  
> 
> It wasn’t working.
> 
>  
> 
> _ I tell you, you put me dark hole, _ Loki signed.  _ No more see light. I have this, you need me tell you. _
> 
>  
> 
> Clint, who was perched on the back of the remaining chair, elbows propped on his knees, tilted his head to look at Coulson. “He’s not wrong, Cheese. I can see how he’d want something to hold onto.”
> 
>  
> 
> “You’re not helping, Barton,” Coulson said mildly. “And I’ve told you not to call me that.”
> 
>  
> 
> Clint snorted and looked back at Loki. “You want to make a deal, don’t you?” he spoke and signed.
> 
>  
> 
> Loki smiled tightly.  _ Exchange information _ , he replied, comfortable with those signs as he had used them many times before.
> 
>  
> 
> “You know we can’t let you roam free on this planet, don’t you?” Coulson warned him. “If the general populace knew of your existence, there’d be mass panic. People would riot. Whole religions would be called into question.”
> 
>  
> 
> While it would amuse Loki to no end to topple religions and cause mass panic, he needed his presence on Miðgarðr to go as unnoticed as possible for the moment. Heimdall would not fail to notice realm-wide chaos, and as usual, Loki would be first to be suspect.
> 
>  
> 
> _ I understand _ , he signed, keeping the thin smile on his face. Loki had been told all his life that he had shifty features, that his face was not one that people trusted. But apparently that was only true on Asgard. Miðgarðians he could play like langeleik. 
> 
>  
> 
> “What kind of arrangement did you have with Dr Foster?” Coulson asked.
> 
>  
> 
> _ Food, shelter,  _ Loki signed.  _ Helped work _ .
> 
>  
> 
> “You helped her with her work?” Coulson echoed. “You’re a scientist?”
> 
>  
> 
> Loki nodded, declining, once again, to introduce the mortals to his knowledge of magics.
> 
>  
> 
> “Would you be willing to make the same arrangement with us?” Coulson stood to his feet and gestured with one hand. “We’d house, feed, clothe, and protect you, and in return you’d give us information about technology and science from your planet.”
> 
>  
> 
> Loki narrowed his eyes, pretending to consider the offer. The mortal had other motives, other agendas. This was merely to lull him into complaisance. To give him a false sense of security. Loki was certain that if he ever showed them a sliver of weakness, they would pounce. In the end, though, he nodded his agreement.
> 
>  
> 
> Coulson smiled dryly. “Excellent. We’ll be housing you here, so Clint can show you to the guest quarters. You might want to get cleaned up. Clint will come get you when it’s time for dinner, and you can eat with the rest of the base.”
> 
>  
> 
> Loki resisted the urge to roll his eyes and looked over at Clint, who was on his feet and stretching.  _ Babysitter _ ? Loki asked.
> 
>  
> 
> Clint raised an eyebrow. “I’m curious as to how you know that sign, but yes, essentially. Cheese and I are the only ones on base that know ASL, so communication is gonna be a hurdle for you.”
> 
>  
> 
> By design, of course, so that Loki would not be able to turn anyone to his side as he had so clearly turned Darcy and Jane Foster, Loki thought darkly. He merely gestured his acquiescence and Clint headed toward the door.
> 
>  
> 
> Once they were in the hall, Loki gestured to Clint and asked,  _ send message? _
> 
>  
> 
> “To who?” Clint asked. “Home?”
> 
>  
> 
> _ No, _ Loki signed impatiently. He used Darcy’s sign-name without thinking, and then at Clint’s blank expression, carefully fingerspelled Darcy’s full name.
> 
>  
> 
> “I can ask,” Clint said. “Coulson may want to wait a couple of days so we can get someone from legal over there with standard non-disclosure forms, first.”
> 
>  
> 
> Loki sighed and dropped his hands to his side. When they reached the “guest quarters” Clint gestured for Loki to enter. It was sparse, at best, a bed, table, and chest of drawers in the first room and a refreshment chamber beyond.
> 
>  
> 
> “It’s not much, but the roof doesn’t leak and it’s got climate control,” Clint said, and then rubbed the back of his head. “Dinner’s in, like, an hour, so if you wanted to clean up, take a nap, or something… I’ll come and get you in about 45 minutes.”
> 
>  
> 
> _ Thank you _ , Loki signed. He waited until Clint left before trying the door handle. As he suspected, it was locked. However, it was a simple mechanical bolt that he could easily overcome. 
> 
>  
> 
> In the next minute or so, he identified no less than three observation devices hidden in the room; two that recorded sound only and one that also recorded images. Loki decided against destroying them. Coulson would no doubt simply have more put into the room.
> 
>  
> 
> Loki looked around a second time and then noticed the glass terrarium on the floor in the corner behind the bed, the mesh lid slightly askew. He smiled, this time in amusement, and crouched to look under the bed.
> 
>  
> 
> Sure enough, the serpent was coiled on the cold floor under the bed. As soon as it saw Loki, it uncoiled and slithered towards him, wrapping around Loki’s wrist and flicking its tongue in annoyance against Loki’s thumb.
> 
>  
> 
> _ Apologies, little one _ , Loki thought, stroking the smooth, black scales.  _ I see they neglected to turn on your lamp. _
> 
>  
> 
> Loki set the terrarium on the table and plugged the lamp’s cord into the wall before turning it on. But the serpent refused to return to the glass cage and remained curled stubbornly around Loki’s arm. 
> 
>  
> 
> He had a great deal to do, and not a lot of time to do it in, as Clint had promised to return in less than an hour.
> 
>  
> 
> First he created a clone of himself which stretched out on the bed and promptly went to sleep. He’d veiled himself at exact second the clone had come into existence, so he was free to leave the room as he pleased, taking the serpent Darcy had so fondly called “Crowley” with him.
> 
>  
> 
> The base was larger than Jane Foster’s laboratory and would require more careful shielding to hide it from Heimdall’s eyes. He’d already taken a great risk leaving himself exposed for as long as he had. The runes used to complete the shielding would have to be invisible to the mortal eye, so they would not be removed. 
> 
>  
> 
> Loki painted runes in storage rooms and closets and on the inside of air vents. On metal pipes and plastic tubing, on the floors in the labs and on the roof between the guard posts. By the time he was done the whole building should have been completely invisible to Heimdall. It would buy him a few days, at the very least.
> 
>  
> 
> He returned to his room and relocked the door. The serpent was finally ready to return to his terrarium, and Loki replaced his clone just in time to hear a brisk knock on the door. He pretended to wake, rubbing his eyes and stretching. 
> 
>  
> 
> It was time to see what manner of secrets the residents of this base held.


	8. Unexpected Allies and Unforseen Enemies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of you guys have been after me for an update on this one, and I'm happy to give you this chapter. As you will soon see, I am diverging even more from the MCU timeline, and Marvel in general. I love a good crossover, so if you're as big a nerd for 90's sci-fi as I am, you're going to recognize some of these new characters. I'm changing a lot in order to fit within the Marvel universe, but some of it will be similar, I'm hoping.
> 
> Enjoy!

The thirteen hour mark had passed twelve minutes ago. Darcy sat at the breakfast table, chewing her thumbnail to the quick as she stared at the black screen of her laptop. The green cursor blinked mockingly in the upper left hand corner.

“Come on, come on, come on,” Darcy muttered to herself.

Behind her, Jane paced back and forth in front of the white boards, an open notebook in her hand. She was distracting herself with work, but kept glancing in Darcy’s direction too often to actually get anything done. Erik had fallen asleep on the couch, arms crossed over his chest and his chin tucked into his collarbone. 

“Anything?” Jane asked with only faint hope.

“No,” Darcy whined. “Not yet. I imagine hacking into the world’s most secretive intelligence agency takes time, but I wish they’d hurry up.”

“Realistically, how long do you think it will take?” Jane pressed.

“Depends on what they’re looking for and how secured the information is,” Darcy said. “If they’re just skimming the surface, once they’re through the fire walls it should only take a couple of minutes. If they’re doing a deep dive, it could take hours. And then it depends on if someone figures out they’re in there. If they decide to just call it a day or if they lay a rabbit trail and keep digging.”

Darcy’s computer dinged softly and the green cursor began to move, leaving a trail of numbers. Coordinates. The cursor moved to the next line.  _ Good luck. _

Darcy let out a whoop that startled Erik awake, causing him to nearly fall off the sofa. “What? What is it? Who's there?” he mumble-yelled, blinking around the dimly-lit lab.

“We have a location for Loki!” Darcy exclaimed, scribbling the coordinates down so she could plug them into Google Maps. “What the hell?”

“What is it?” Jane demanded, hovering over Darcy’s shoulder and squinting at the computer screen. “Where is that?”

“Arizona,” Darcy said. “Like, four hours from here. Right on the other side of the state line.”

“It’s out in the middle of nowhere,” Erik observed.

“Yup,” Darcy replied, rubbing her nose. “That’s going to make things a little more complicated. They’re going to see us coming a mile away.”

“So, what are the chances of us being able to get him out of there?” Jane asked, her hopes visibly taking a nosedive.

“Slim to zilch,” Darcy said in resignation. She tapped her lips. “If we had a way of talking with Loki, we might pull it off, but I don’t see how we’re getting into there without an assault team.”

“Maybe not,” Jane said slowly.

Darcy and Erik both turned to look at her. “Elaborate,” Darcy ordered, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Sooo… my father was also an astrophysicist, as you know,” Jane said, scratching one eyebrow. “He did a lot of contract work with the government. A lot. I mean, it was most of what he did. Top secret defense contracts. He was practically buried under Cheyenne Mountain for almost two decades until he died three years ago.”

“Sorry for your loss, but I don’t see how this is going to help us,” Darcy said flatly.

“If you’re suggesting what I think you’re suggesting, there is no way it will work,” Erik said, waving one hand. “They are not even going to admit that the program existed, much less allow you to speak to anyone involved in it.”

“Wait,  _ what _ program?” Darcy demanded, perking up.

“The Stargate Program,” Jane explained. “I was briefly given extremely limited access to it after Dad died.”

“What the hell is Stargate?” Darcy asked, looking from Jane to Erik and back.

“Theoretically, it was a method of instantaneous beaming of information from one planet to another,” Jane told the younger woman. “Think about. Real time communication with satellites or even astronauts at the edge of the solar system. It was my father’s life work. And he almost succeeded before he worked himself to death. Before he died, though, Dad said they’d been getting strange feedback on the transmissions, like something, or some _ one _ was trying to reply.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Darcy said, holding her hands up. “Are you saying your dad talked to  _ aliens _ ? And you are just now telling us about this?”

“Your father told me about those transmissions as well,” Erik said, giving Jane a kind expression. “But he was never able to prove their origin.”

“That’s not the  _ point _ ,” Jane said impatiently. “The point is, I know people. Very important people. People who might be willing to go to bat for us. For Loki.”

“ _ Now _ you’re talking!” Darcy exclaimed, clapping her hands excitedly. 

“What time is it?” Jane asked, looking at her wrist which, to Darcy’s knowledge, had never held a watch.

“Four thirty AM,” Erik replied.

“Okay, good, she’ll be awake,” Jane muttered, shooing Darcy away from the laptop. “I need this. Move.”

Darcy jumped up from the chair, choosing not to reprimand Jane for her rudeness, and took up roost over Jane’s shoulder as Jane opened up the internet and proceeded to log into seven separate screens, each with a different username and password. The final screen was a video call screen, black with blue letters spelling “CONNECTING...PLEASE WAIT.”

After six minutes, the screen lit up with a live video of an attractive, middle-aged blonde woman who looked entirely too alert for the early hour of the morning. “Dr. Foster?” she asked, slightly confused. “Uh, hello. What can I do for you?”

“General Carter, hi,” Jane said breathlessly. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

The blonde woman--General Carter--moved away from the camera to reveal she was in a lab very similar to Jane’s. She was also out of uniform, wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt and blue cargo pants. “As you can see, I was sound asleep,” she said wryly.

“Right, scientist’s hours,” Jane said. “I’m the same way.”

“I recall,” Carter said, amused. “I imagine you didn’t call to chat. Also how did you have access to this communications channel?”

“I was tasked with putting my father’s work in order after he died,” Jane explained. “I was given logins just in case I needed them.”

“I see,” Carter said with a frown. “That’s right, you’re Jonathan Foster’s daughter. Brilliant man. Good scientist. All right. How can I help you?”

Jane took a deep breath. “We need your help,” she began. “What I’m about to tell you is in confidence, and I need you to understand I would not lie to you under any circumstance. Not about this. As one astrophysicist to another.” Jane glanced up at Erik, who nodded solemnly in agreement.

“We’ve made first contact with an alien entity,” Jane said in a rush. “Seven days ago, in the desert outside of Puente Antigua, New Mexico.”

“I’m sorry, did you say  _ alien?”  _ Carter interrupted. “As in, a life form from another planet?”

“Yes,” Jane confirmed.

“And you have incontrovertible proof that this is, in fact, an alien?” Carter demanded.

“Proof enough that SHIELD showed up yesterday and practically kidnapped him,” Jane said. “We believe he’s being held against his will at a SHIELD base in Arizona.”

“He?” Carter echoed. “You were able to communicate with it enough to determine it was a ‘he’? How? What means of communication does it use? Do you have any video footage? Did you take any samples?”

Jane shook her head. “To be honest, he looks just like a human, except he is superhumanly strong and may have some kind of psychic abilities. Telekinesis and pyrokinesis at the very least. He understands English but can’t write or read it without help. His tongue was cut out prior to us finding him, so my intern was teaching him ASL before SHIELD arrested him.”

“SHIELD,” Carter muttered under her breath. “Of course it would be SHIELD. Of all the departments of Homeworld Security, they’re the least likely to play well with others.” She tilted her head back and forth while she thought. “Okay. Send me everything you have on this alien. Any photos, video footage, language samples, anything like that. How did he come to earth? Does he have a ship?  _ When  _ did he come to earth is another important question. We’ve been monitoring any and all atmospheric activity and we haven’t seen anything like a ship landing.”

“Well, that’s complicated, and we don’t completely understand it,” Jane admitted. “He might be able to use some kind of Einstein-Rosen Bridge.”

Carter’s blue eyes went very large and round. “Oh, you are  _ kidding _ !” she exclaimed, sounding like an excited child on Christmas morning. “An actual, functional wormhole stable enough for human transport? Without any kind of protective containment field? Did you actually witness this? What sort of power source does he use?”

“That’s the problem,” Jane said. “We only have his word that that’s how he came to earth and he’s been very cagey about explaining how it works. But I’ll tell you, my own work on Einstein-Rosen Bridges has advanced more in the last week than it has in the last five years with his help.”

“He’s been helping you with your work?” Carter demanded. “He’s an astrophysicist?”

“He’s some kind of scientist,” Jane replied. “Multidisciplinary, I think. He’s shown expertise in everything from mathematics to xenobiology.”

Carter’s eyes sparkled. “Ok. We definitely need to get this guy away from SHIELD. SHIELD is a good agency, but it’s primary goal is intelligence and defense, not scientific research. If we could get him here, at Stargate… Arizona, you said?”

“The agent that took him was named Coulson,” Darcy yelled from off screen.

“Coulson?” Carter echoed. “Well, shit.”

“What? What does that mean?” Jane asked, worried.

“I’ve met Coulson,” Carter said. “He’s a bulldog. And he’s the Defense Committee’s darling. They love him. He gets results. Not to fear, though,” she continued, raising her finger. “I have something he doesn’t.”

“What’s that?” Darcy demanded, leaning into the view of the web camera.

“Secretary O’Neill,” Carter said with a smug grin. “Hang tight, Dr. Foster. I’ll get your alien friend out of SHIELD custody come hell or high water. Don’t forget to send me your data.”

“I won’t,” Jane promised. “And please, call me Jane.”

“Sam,” Carter replied. “I look forward to working with you very soon.” The screen went dark, then booted Jane to the desktop.

“Are we sure this was a good idea?” Darcy asked.

“What do you mean?” Jane replied, looking up at her.

“I mean, aren’t we basically exchanging one top-secret government agency for another one? What makes this Stargate program any different from SHIELD?”

“Stargate will allow us access to Loki,” Jane assured Darcy. “And, as General Carter pointed out, Stargate is a science and research program, not an intelligence agency. It might be part of Homeworld Defence, but it’s more along the lines of NASA than the NSA.”

“Wait. Back the truck up. There’s a  _ Homeworld Defense Agency _ ?” Darcy demanded in a flat, unimpressed voice.

“Yes, and there has been since the late Nineties,” Jane said, already distracted. “Help me get everything we have on Loki for General Carter. Didn’t you take a bunch of photos and videos?”

“Mind blown,” Darcy muttered. Then, louder, “Yeah, keep your pants on. I’ll email them to you.”

XxxXxxX

So far, Loki’s time in SHIELD custody had been excruciatingly dull. He had been denied access to any information about the outside world, including the status of his new, human friends. Well, not exactly  _ friends _ , but colleagues. Clint had promised twice now he would try to get Loki into contact with Darcy, but Loki did not hold out much hope for that.

It had almost been two days since he had allowed SHIELD to take him into custody and as of yet he had not discovered anything of use, or indeed anything of interest. He had still not been able to access the high-security parts of the base. He had developed a plan to bypass the security, but it would take him at least another day to gather the materials he needed.

But, to put things simply, Loki was  _ bored _ . And, despite all his efforts, he missed Darcy. He missed her energy, her curiosity, her wit, and above all, the fact that she was utterly fascinated by him.  _ Him _ , the second son. The  _ spare _ . The one so easily overlooked. The one who never attracted attention except from those who sought to use him as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

Darcy was not interested in any of that. She was endlessly fascinated by  _ him _ , plain and simple. And try as he might not to, Loki  _ liked _ that.

So by the morning of the third day, Loki had come to the end of his patience. He rose early after sleeping for only a couple of hours (having left a clone to take watch), collected Crowley from its cage, and entertained himself by reading through the textbooks Agent Coulson had supplied him until it was time for Clint to come collect him for breakfast.

Clint arrived at fifteen minutes before eight o’clock, precisely as he had the day previous, with a yawn and a sheepish grin. “Good morning,” he signed and spoke. “How did you sleep?”

_ Adequate _ , Loki replied. If nothing else had come of his time with SHIELD, Clint had at least been true to his word, and had dedicated several hours to teaching Loki ASL. His vocabulary had nearly tripled, and he was no longer struggling to find words to express himself. 

“How is your reading coming along?” Clint asked politely.

_ Done with books you gave me, _ Loki said. 

“Already?” Clint asked, looking impressed. “Speed reader. Okay.”

Coulson found them before they reached the cafeteria, his expression stony. “You both had better come with me,” he said in a flat tone.

Loki felt Clint go to full alert, suddenly as taut as a bowstring, all guise of friendly oaf vanished without a trace.

“What’s up, boss?” he asked quietly, stepping away from Loki’s side.

“Those civilians proved to be more troublesome than I thought they’d be,” Coulson muttered.

Loki’s eyes narrowed. If that was any way a threat to Darcy, Jane, and Erik, Coulson would learn all the secrets about Loki’s true nature he desired.

“What’d they do?” Clint asked in a voice probably intended to be barely audible.

“They went over our heads,” Coulson replied, not bothering to hide his answer. “Apparently Dr. Foster has connections.”

“Oh,” Clint said, glancing back at Loki, who kept his face unreadable.

Coulson gestured and Loki fell into step behind him, allowing Clint to bring up the rear. Not that he trusted Clint to have access to his vulnerable back, but he deduced that Clint was not likely to attack Loki without permission from Coulson.

Coulson led them to a plain room furnished with a long, heavy table and the rolling chairs that amused Darcy so much. In the room already waiting were several new humans Loki hadn’t seen before. There was a tall man with gray hair in a blue suit similar to Coulson’s black one. He had a grim face but a witty sparkle in his eye. He carried weight like a man only recently given to inactivity, and a stillness to him that only came with experience and training. 

Next to him stood a blonde woman, quite attractive for her age, wearing blue clothing more akin to Clint’s than Coulson’s. Her hair was pulled into a tail, she wore little cosmetics, and the moment her eyes fell on Loki they lit up like a child’s at midnight on Jül. 

There were two other men, but their demeanor was so reticent that Loki barely took notice of them more than to register their presence and dismiss them as a threat.

The woman bounded across the room, a wide grin on her face and her hand extended. “Hello,” she said,  bursting with cheer. “I’m General Sam Carter. It’s such a pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about you from Dr. Foster.”

Loki warily returned the woman’s handshake before pulling away so he could sign,  _ You know Jane? _ Loki belated spelled out Jane’s name, as he had been the one to give Jane her sign name, and there was no way this General Sam Carter would know it.

“We’ve met a few times over the years,” General Carter replied before anyone had the chance to translate. “But we spoke most recently this morning, actually.”

Loki found himself smiling despite himself. Of course. Noble Jane. She had asked this woman for help in freeing him from SHIELD’s clutches. He had sorely underestimated his human friends.

“This is Secretary of Homeworld Defense Jonathan O’Neill,” General Carter introduced, gesturing towards the grizzle-haired man. He stepped forward with the ghost of a smile and offered his hand.

“Charmed,” Secretary O’Neill said in a voice that could be taken either way. Loki immediately decided he liked this man. “I hear you’re from outer space. How was the trip in?”

_ Very unpleasant _ , Loki replied, matching O’Neill’s smile.

“I would imagine,” Secretary O’Neill continued. “I understand you used a wormhole?”

“Wormhole?” Coulson echoed. “Loki, you told us you had a ship.”

Loki bared his teeth in an expression nothing like a smile.  _ I mistaken, _ he signed.  _ Hit head very hard. Forgot. _

Coulson narrowed his eyes unhappily at Loki. “General Carter and Secretary O’Neill are here to assess your condition, your Highness. They were under the impression you are here against your will.”

Loki turned to look at General Carter.  _ Jane tell you that? _ He asked.

“She believed you might have been coerced into coming here,” General Carter said, pointedly not looking at Coulson.

_ No one make me do what I not want, _ Loki signed.

General Carter nodded slowly. “So you’re saying you  _ want _ to be here, with SHIELD?”

Loki frowned, thinking very quickly. Jane had approached this General Carter for help, so Jane must trust this woman to some extent. Jane’s desire was clearly to remove Loki from SHIELD custody, which to be honest was also Loki’s desire. There was nothing here that interested him. But what did General Carter want in return? If she was able to facilitate Loki’s return to Jane’s lab, what would the cost be? And would Jane be satisfied to have Loki negotiate on her behalf?

It only irked Loki for a moment that he was so concerned with the feelings of others. He had already made the decision that, whatever he was, he was  _ not _ a monster, and he would not act like one. Prince he may no longer be, but he would abide by his training, and diplomacy was the tool of more than just kings.

_ I want work with Jane _ , Loki signed.

“We can arrange that,” General Carter said eagerly. “We would be happy to fully fund Dr. Foster’s research as well, and provide her with laboratory space.”

_ For what? _ Loki asked suspiciously.

“For her work with Einstein-Rosen Bridges,” General Carter said, losing a bit of steam to confusion.

_ No, for what? _ Loki signed again.  _ What cost? _

“We would want access to her work, of course, but she would have full control and discretion over the nature and direction of her study,” General Carter said.

Ah, yes. There it was. General Carter was no different than Agent Coulson, eager to get her hands on any scrap of information Loki would give them about alien technology.

“Now hold on just a minute,” Coulson said, holding up a hand. “No offense, General Carter, but the Stargate Program doesn’t have jurisdiction over first contact. That’s SHIELD’s purview. It’s our responsibility to evaluate and assess any extraterrestrial threat made known to Homeworld Security.”

“Which you clearly have evaluated and assessed and found no threat,” General Carter said mildly. “And now Stargate would like utilize Loki’s skills as a scientist in any capacity he is willing.” She turned to Loki and continued, “You are, of course, completely free to refuse to work for us in any capacity, with the caveat that your time on our planet will be closely monitored and that you provide some very basic biological samples.”

_ I happy work with Jane, _ Loki repeated firmly. He would make whatever deal he needed to return to Jane, Darcy, and Erik. Whether he would uphold the bargain later was a decision for the future.

“We would be willing to bring Dr. Foster onboard here at the Pegasus Facility,” Agent Coulson began, but Loki cut him off with a bark of dry laughter.

_ Over Jane’s dead body, _ he signed when all eyes were on him. It was an idiom Darcy had taught him, and he loved its visceral feel.

“Looks like the situation is pretty clear,” Secretary O’Neill said, clapping and then rubbing his hands together. “Loki will only work with Dr. Foster, and Dr. Foster will  _ not _ work with SHIELD.”

“I’m going to have to object again,” Agent Coulson said. “You cannot shut SHIELD out on this. If the Defense Committee heard about this--”

“I’m  _ on _ the Defense Committee,” Secretary O’Neill reminded Agent Coulson dryly. “And before you accuse me of favoritism, I’m not part of the Stargate Program. I am here to represent the interests of the Homeworld Defense Agency, not just one program.  _ However _ , in the interest of inter-agency cooperation, the Stargate Program would be happy for SHIELD to send two, and only two, science specialists to work alongside Dr. Foster with the Stargate Program.”

Agent Coulson crossed his arms and thought very hard for almost half a minute. “Okay, that’s fair,” he finally admitted. “But I want Agent Barton to go with Loki, too.”

Secretary O’Neill turned his head to give Clint a very long, astute look. “Is Agent Barton a science specialist?” he asked.

“No, but Agent Barton is fluent in ASL and a master strategist, and I would not trust Loki’s safety to anyone else,” Coulson said.

“You’re...worried about Loki’s safety?” General Carter said slowly, looking from Coulson to Clint and back.

“I’m worried that elements in both of our agencies may not have idealistic views on how best to utilize Prince Loki’s time on earth,” Agent Coulson said. “Not all of us have boundless curiosity about worlds beyond ours that you and I do, General Carter.”

Loki cleared his throat loudly. All eyes once again focused on him. He had discovered, early on in his stay on earth, that because he was unable to speak, people believed him completely incapable of sound, and when he proved otherwise, he received rather startled reactions. 

_ I happy Clint come with me, _ he said. Loki found his time with Clint to be engaging and an enjoyable way of passing time, and he wouldn’t be adverse to having someone around whose main duty was his safety, especially since he was very much in agreement with Coulson’s doubts.

“Fine,” Secretary O’Neill said. “Two science specialists, and Agent Barton.”

Agent Barton raised his hand. “Do I get a say in this?” he asked in resignation.

“No,” Coulson told him. “Go pack your gear.”

“Yes, boss,” Clint muttered, and slunk out of the room.

“We have a helicopter ready to take you back to Puente Antigua,” General Carter told Loki. “We’ll send your luggage along behind you.”

“All he brought with him was a terrarium,” Coulson said before Loki could decline.

“Terrarium?” Secretary O’Neill echoed with a frown. “For what?”

“He has a snake he apparently domesticated during his stay here,” Coulson explained. “Never goes anywhere without it.”

“Snakes. Lovely.” Secretary O’Neill did not appear enthused. “Well, to each their own. Loki. I’m sorry, I don’t think we covered how exactly to address you. How do you wish to be called?”

Asgard generally did not quibble about titles, even among the royal family. Loki was quite used to his associates and peers calling him by his first name, without any honorific.  _ Fine call me Loki _ , he told the Secretary.

“Excellent,” O’Neill said. “I don’t mean to rush anyone, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to actually fly something in almost fifteen years, so why don’t we get this show on the road?”

A “helicopter” turned out to be a flying vehicle that relied on the swift rotation of narrow blades affixed to the top of a very fragile-looking gondola. Loki stood on the roof of the SHIELD base, hand shading his eyes from the wind whipped up by the helicopter’s blades. There was absolutely no way in all the dark depths of Hel he was setting foot in that death trap.

At his side, Coulson brought his hand up to press against the communications device perched in his ear. “Dispatch say again?” he yelled over the loud whir of the helicopter’s engines. He raised his head and turned, peering off into the desert.

“General Carter!” Coulson called. “We have an unauthorized perimeter breach to the south. If you and the Secretary could kindly go back inside until we’ve resolved this?”

General Carter hesitated, and for a moment Loki could see the warrior she had once been in her younger days. Then she nodded and headed for the helicopter, where the Secretary was already strapped into the pilot’s seat. “Jack!” she yelled. “Shut it down!”

Loki couldn’t hear the Secretary’s reply, but apparently it was not pleased, because Carter had to yell at him again.

  
“They’ve got a security breach! Shut it down!”

A moment later, the engines died and blessed silence returned to the rooftop. A guard walked over to Coulson and handed him a pair of binoculars. Loki followed Coulson and Barton over to the south side of the roof and gazed out into the desert.

Loki was capable of seeing a great distance further than humans, he had learned, and his magicks allowed him to see even further than most Asgardians. He saw a wall of fog and mist crawling towards them from the desert, impenetrable by the mortal eye. Loki muttered spell words for the Sight that would let him pierce the mist. What he saw made his blood run cold.

Jõtnar, several dozen of them, striding over the harsh landscape suddenly encased with ice. Loki knew in that moment exactly what their intent was.

They were coming for him.


	9. An All American God

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look who's back! And just in time for the traditional Christmas update! During my unplanned hiatus I got married, went on my honeymoon, hosted Thanksgiving dinner for my in-laws, bought a new tablet, and had surgery. Wasn't really feeling very inspired during that time, especially while on prescription painkillers. Me plus hydrocodone doesn't really equal lots of writing time. It mostly equals narcolepsy and amnesia. Fun stuff. Anyway, I wasn't going to miss my traditional Christmas update for hell or high water. Enjoy and have a lovely winter holiday!

Loki was excruciatingly aware he had a very distinct choice in this moment. He could run, as far and as fast as his legs could take him, and never look back; or he could stand and fight. The problem was, if the Jötnar were here, on Midgarðr, then that meant they had found the Way from Jotunheimr, and that meant that more Jötnar would follow. Of course, that did not have to be Loki’s problem if he didn’t want it to be.

 

But…

 

Darcy was not far from the military base, barely a few hours’ travel, and as much as it pained him to admit, the thought of Darcy in danger tore the strings of Loki’s heart.

 

So, with a mental curse, Loki summoned his daggers and his armor and began to prepare magick defenses.

 

“What the fuck is that?” General Carter asked, frowning at the encroaching wall of mist.

 

“Holy fuck,” Clint said from behind Loki. “Loki, holy fuck. Where the fuck did you--what the fuck?”

 

Coulson and Carter both turned to look at Loki at the same time, two pairs of blue eyes widening at the sight of the former Asgardian prince in his full splendor. Loki sheathed one dagger to free one hand and signed  _ enemies _ with great emphasis.

 

“Enemies?” Coulson echoed. “Who are they? What do they want?”

 

Loki pointed to his chest with a snarl and drew his dagger again, spinning the blades easily through his fingers.

 

“So would it be safe to assume that these are aliens?” Coulson asked, sounding almost resigned. Loki nodded sharply.

 

Coulson raised his hand to his ear. “Red alert,” he ordered. “We’ve got incoming hostiles, unknown origin. Full red alert. Barton, get Carter and O’Neill to a safe room.”

 

Clint sent Loki an almost betrayed look before gesturing at the General and the Secretary. “This way, please,” he said.

 

As Clint escorted the dignitaries to safety, soldiers flooded onto the roof, all carrying ungainly weapons and wearing bulky black body armor. Coulson looked Loki up and down. “So, I take it you’re going to help defend the base?” he asked dryly.

 

Loki nodded again and strode to the edge of the roof. Coulson joined him. “Please tell me you have something other than a couple of knives up your sleeves,” Coulson said. “What exactly are we up against?”

 

Loki closed his eyes, lips forming the words of the spell, and made a slashing motion with the dagger in his left hand, his anthame. The enshrouding fog parted like a torn curtain and then completely dissolved. The Jötnar ground to a halt, wary of the magick performed against them.

 

“Oh,” Coulson said, sounding uncertain. “Okay. Uh, yeah. We can work with this.” He pressed a finger to his ear. “Clint, can you bring Big Betty on your way back up here? Thanks.”

 

The Jötnar overcame their hesitation and charged at the base at full speed.

 

“Oh, shit,” Coulson muttered.

 

Just as the Jötnar entered defensive magicks range, Loki learned what exactly the Midgardian weapons did. Apparently they spat metal projectiles faster than the speed of light, which would have been impressive, had they been effective.

 

But, to Loki’s delight, the mortals proved more inventive than he had original gave them credit for. A black-clad mortal, a rather petite brunette woman with a wicked gleam in her eye, knelt at the edge of the roof. On her shoulder rested a long metal tube with a green metal cone at the front end. She peered through a circular glass eye piece for a moment, and then pulled a small trigger.

 

With a puff of smoke and a loud noise, the front end of the tube exploded forward, leaving a trail of white smoke in its wake. Loki followed the projectile in its flight towards the Jötnar until it abruptly nosedived at the leader’s feet and erupted into a massive ball of fire.

 

A laugh burst from Loki’s throat almost involuntarily at the sight of the Jotun stumbling backwards, bellowing in pain and slapping uselessly at the flames wreathing its body. 

 

“Fire works,” Coulson observed happily. He turned to Loki. “Fire works?” he asked for confirmation.

 

Loki laughed again and nodded. Coulson grinned back. “Light ‘em up!” he yelled at the soldiers.

 

A helicopter roared by over head, flying towards the Jötnar. Two more missiles bursts forth from the aircraft, but this time the Jötnar were prepared. A wall of ice appeared in front of the Jötnar, and when the missiles impacted, shattered into a million fragments, leaving the Frost Giants unharmed.

 

Clint returned to the roof. Over his shoulder was a recognizable bow and quiver of arrows, but in his arms he carried what Loki sincerely hoped was a weapon. It was unwieldy and bulky but looked positively dangerous. Coulson smiled tightly. “Hello, big girl,” he murmured, reaching toward the weapon.

 

Part of the weapon was a metal pack that strapped to Coulson’s back, with a mobile arm that curled over one shoulder, controlled by small levers in Coulson’s hands.

 

By now the human soldiers were pummeling the Jötnar with propelled explosives, slowing their forward movement to a crawl. None of the Jötnar had fallen, but Loki could see that several of them were gravely injured.

 

Coulson peered into a screen that was suspended in front of his right eye for a moment before depressing both buttons on the hand levers. A ball of crackling white lightning spat from the barrel of the weapon and flew in a wide arc. The Jötun Coulson had aimed for summoned an ice shield and attempted to bat the energy away. Instead, the ball of lightning exploded into long arcs of white electricity, piercing four of the Jötnar at once.

 

“Nice shot,” Clint said casually, sliding his bow off his shoulder and drawing an arrow from his quiver. Loki eyed the archer, approving of the traditional weapon. He was curious to see how the human compared to the longbowmen of Asgard. Clint gave Loki an equally assessing gaze. “Are those pigstickers really gonna do much good? Looks like these bastards have pretty thick skin.”

 

Loki bared his teeth at the human and stretched out his left hand. He traced a sigil with the anthame clutched in his fingers and poured seidr into it. Ideally the spell would be powered by a blood sacrifice, but Loki did not have one available and had to power the spell with his own energy.

 

A line of fire appeared on the dry desert ground, green flames leaping up halfway between the Jötnar and the base. Clint lowered his bow and leaned over the edge of the roof. “Huh,” he said simply. He looked over his shoulder. “That you?”

 

Loki nodded tightly, trying to control the drain of power. Clint clearly had come to the decision not to be surprised by anything else that Loki did, because he nodded and turned back to the enemy.

 

The fire barrier lasted long enough to allow the helicopter to claim the first casualty. But as the Jötun crumpled to the ground, the Jötnar abruptly closed ranks. A hail of ice rose from the phalanx, riddling the helicopter with shards as hard as diamonds. The helicopter listed, fire spewing from one side, and crashed into the dirt with a fiery explosion. A moment later, the fire barrier sputtered out, overwhelmed by an onslaught of ice.

 

Loki staggered at the abrupt loss of seidr and had to catch himself on the edge of the roof. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing deeply, blocking out the sound of the mortals’ weapons. He was fully healed. He had access to his full magicks. He was the second greatest warrior in Asgard. This was a battle he could win.

 

Still, he felt an almost embarrassingly intense desire for the presence of his brother. He ruthlessly murdered that thought and opened his eyes, squaring his shoulders. The Jötnar were mere yards away. The battle had truly begun, now.

 

XxxXxxX

 

Darcy was trying to distract herself with homework when an IM screen popped up with the screen name  _ skye_walker9. Turn on your local news _ , it read. Darcy didn’t question the message for a second, and brought up a live stream of the local news channel. It was currently showing a blurry video of tracer bullets and explosions outside a squat military base in the middle of the desert. But it wasn’t, as Darcy originally thought, in the Middle East. The banner at the bottom read “Live From Arizona.”

 

“Holy shit!” Darcy yelped. “Jane! Erik! Get over here!”

 

Jane scurried over from the other side of the lab, catching herself on the back of Darcy’s chair. “What?” she demanded. “What is that? What’s going on?”

 

Darcy jabbed her finger at the computer screen. “That’s the base SHIELD is holding Loki at!” she exclaimed.

 

“Are you sure?” Erik asked, appearing over Jane’s shoulder.

 

“Yeah,” Darcy said. “Holy shit.”

 

“Who are they fighting?” Jane asked worriedly. “You don’t think it’s…?”

 

“I don’t think it is Loki,” Erik assured her. “Even if Loki  _ is _ a Norse God, I don’t think he could withstand all that.”

 

“That’s not making me feel better!” Darcy complained. She jumped to her feet and ran over to the couch to fish her shoes out from under it. “Grab your shit. We’re heading out.”

 

“To do what?” Jane asked, alarmed.

 

“I don’t know,” Darcy replied, shoving her feet into her sneakers without untying them. “But I’m not going to sit here on my ass while Loki’s in danger.”

 

“I’m sure Loki is capable of taking care of himself,” Erik hazarded. “He is supposed to be very clever.”

 

“It’s a fucking warzone out there and he’s my friend,” Darcy retorted. “I’m going to try to help him. You can come with me or you can stay behind.”

 

Jane sighed explosively. “Hang on. Let me grab my bag.”

 

Ten minutes later, Darcy was driving the van at full speed through the desert with both scientists in the back, hanging on for dear life. Darcy kept the news streaming on her laptop while reporters and news casters tried to speculate on what was going on, and while one military representative after another denied any knowledge.

 

The conflict lasted a total of thirty-seven minutes and ended with a massive explosion that obliterated at least a quarter of the base. After that the base went eerily silent. Darcy almost drove the van into a gulch while she stared at the laptop, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, scurrying figures were seen amidst the wreckage, and after another half hour, an army helicopter landed outside the base.

 

None of them wanted to speculate on whether Loki was even alive, or what they would do when they reached the base. Darcy didn’t really have a plan other than to show up and demand to see Loki. Hopefully General Carter had worked her magic before shit went south.

 

The rest of the drive was tense and silent, broken only by Jane occasionally giving Darcy updates on their heading when Darcy drifted too far in one direction. The van had been adapted for off-roading, which allowed them to take a direct route, saving them some precious time. It was still almost four hours later that they arrived at the base.

 

Before they even reached the border fence, a humvee appeared from literally nowhere and chased them down, cutting them off while four black-clad soldiers jumped out of the veh. The soldiers surrounded the van, yelling orders.

 

Darcy turned off the van, rolled down the window, and threw the keys out onto the ground. She stuck both hands out the window. “I’m not armed!” she yelled, unable to keep the panic out of her voice. One of the soldiers approached the driver’s side.

 

“Get out of the vehicle!” he yelled at her, pointing his assault rifle at her. “Get out of the vehicle with your hands in the air.

 

“Darcy!” Jane hissed. “Do as he says! Be careful.”

 

“I am exiting the vehicle!” Darcy yelled at the top of her lungs. Her foster mother had lived through the LA riots, and had made sure that Darcy knew how to properly interact with authority figures without getting unnecessarily shot. She opened the door slowly and stepped out, her hands in the air.

 

“There are two people in the van, both unarmed!” Darcy called. “We are scientists! We do not have weapons.”

 

“Get on your knees,” the soldier ordered, no longer yelling, and his gun was now pointed at Darcy’s feet rather than her chest. A good sign, she decided. Darcy got on her knees and placed her hands on her head.

 

“You in the vehicle,” the soldier called. “Exit the vehicle with your hands in the air!”

 

Jane and Erik both obeyed, and knelt beside Darcy in the dirt.

 

Two of the soldiers searched the van while the other two covered the two scientists and intern. After a few tense moments, one of the searchers returned with all of their ID’s. The lead soldier took them and stared at them for a moment.

 

“Dr Foster?” he asked, looking from the IDs to Jane. “You’re Dr Jane Foster.”

 

“Yes, I am,” Jane said in a voice that, to her credit, did not shake. “I want to speak to General Carter or Agent Coulson.”

 

The lead soldier abruptly offered Jane her ID back. “Come with me,” he ordered tersely.

 

Darcy, Jane, and Erik were loaded in the humvee with the lead soldier while the others were left behind with the van. Jane tried to ask the soldier questions but was ignored while they drove the remaining distance to the base.

 

The base was no longer smoking, and up close the damage didn’t look as bad as Dary had feared. Most of the base was still standing. They passed through the fence without stopping and were driven right to the main entrance, where Agent Coulson was waiting.

 

“Dr Foster,” the agent greeted. “Believe it or not, but I’m very happy to see you right now.”

 

“Where is Loki?” Darcy demanded before Jane could reply. “What happened? Is he hurt?”

 

“Miss Lewis,” Coulson said dryly. “I’m actually happy to see you, too. This way, please.”

 

Coulson lead them briskly through crowded halls deep into the middle of the remaining base. Darcy’s heart sank when she realized where they were going. The medical wing was overflowing with frantic nurses, stressed-looking doctors and black-clad soldier with various degrees of injuries. Coulson wound through the chaos to a sealed room.

 

“Before we go in,” he said, turning to face them. “I just want to warn you. It looks a lot worse than it is. He’s stable and responding well. He just hasn’t woken up yet.”

 

“Oh, god,” Jane whispered, pressing her fingertips to his lip. “How bad?”

 

Coulson hesitated. “He’s suffered burns over about sixty percent of his body, some broken bones, and smoke inhalation. But like I said, he’s responding well to treatment. We can’t actually identify why he hasn’t woken up.”

 

“He’s in a coma?” Darcy demanded, her voice shrill.

 

“Essentially, yes,” Coulson admitted. “We’ve done an MRI and he hasn’t suffered any brain damage. We’re running more tests but at the moment that’s all we know.”

 

“Dear Lord,” Erik muttered.

 

“Move,” Darcy ordered, narrowing her eyes at Coulson. “Let me see him.”

 

Coulson obligingly stepped aside and tapped an ID badge against the reader. The door beeped and popped open. Darcy grabbed the handle and yanked. She stepped into the antiseptic-smelling room beyond and stopped abruptly enough that Jane ran into her back.

 

Loki lay still in a hospital bed in the center of the room, surrounded by a plastic hermetic tent and a perfusion of machines. Even through the distortion of the plastic, Darcy could see it was Not Good. Loki was not covered in any sheet or blanket, and he was only clad in a pair of cooling compression shorts. His legs, arms, chest, and face were all covered in oozing, cracked, red burns. The hair on the left side of his head was completely gone, and what was left on the right was singed short.

 

“What happened to him?” Darcy demanded

 

“He was in the part of the base that exploded,” Coulson said grimly. “He was the only survivor.”

 

“Who attacked the base?” Erik demanded. “What happened?”

 

“We’re still trying to put the pieces together,” Coulson told them. “But as of right now, we can say with fair certainty we were attacked by alien hostiles with the intent to capture or kill Loki.”

 

“Why?” Darcy asked. “Who were they?”

 

Coulson shook his head. “We don’t know. Loki wasn’t able to give us very much information before the attack, and after, well,” he waved tersely at the hermetic tent.

 

“Can I…?” Darcy inched closer. Coulson shook his head. 

 

“Until we can get a better idea of his immune system, the doctors think it’s best to limit the number of pathogens he’s exposed to.”

 

“Oh,” Darcy said, fighting down disappointment.

 

“Where is General Carter?” Jane asked behind Darcy. “Can I speak with her?”

 

“We have some questions for you first, but she’ll be in on the debriefing,” Coulson said. “If you’ll come this way?”

 

“Can I stay?” Darcy asked, turning to face the others. “With him?”

 

Coulson hesitated a moment, then nodded. “As long as you don’t touch anything and let the medics work, I don’t see how that’s a problem. Don’t leave the medical wing until we send someone to get you, though. Parts of the building aren’t structurally safe at the moment and we’d hate for anyone else to get hurt.”

 

Darcy swallowed thickly and nodded. Jane placed her hand on Darcy’s arm and gave her a sympathetic look. Erik gave her an awkward but well-meaning side hug. Then they followed Coulson out of the room. A few seconds after they left, a white-clad woman bustled into the room with a folding chair.

 

“You’re Darcy Lewis?” she asked, sounding slightly overwhelmed.

 

“Uh, yeah,” Darcy replied. The woman handed Darcy the folding chair and a sticky paper name tag that read “Authorized: Don’t Boot Me.”

 

“Don’t get in the way,” the woman warned. “I’m Dr Ogbodo and I’m in charge of Loki’s care. Coulson said you could stay with him as long as you  _ don’t _ touch anything, and don’t make a fuss. Sit next to the tent and for god’s sake  _ talk  _ to him. He’s going to need as much stimulation as possible if he’s going to pull through. Also, if you’re here long enough, we’ll do our best to feed and water you, so don’t worry about that.”

 

Darcy was not expecting any consideration at all, so the kindness hidden below the exasperated tone caught her off guard. “Okay,” she said. “Great. Yeah. I’ll, uh, I’ll do that.”

 

“Wonderful,” Dr Ogbodo said, and walked out of the room.

 

Darcy set the folding chair as close to the hermetic tent as she felt was safe and sat down. She adhered the name tag to her shirt before crossing her arms and slouching in the chair.

 

“See, this is what you get when you go off and try to be a hero,” she told Loki with no heat in her voice whatsoever. “You get a building dropped on your stupid ass.” Loki, of course, did not reply. “I don’t think your ass is stupid,” Darcy said after a moment of silence. Then, realizing what she said, she blurted. “I don’t think  _ you’re _ stupid. Not your ass. I don’t have an opinion of your ass.”

 

Well, she  _ did _ , but  _ he _ didn’t need to know that.

 

“So, Coulson said the aliens who attacked were trying to get at you,” Darcy continued. “I guess there are a lot of different aliens out there, huh? Bet you’ve been to lots of different planets. That must be pretty cool. Just, you know, jet off to a new planet if you get bored. Wish we could do that. Hell, with the way we’re treating this planet, we might have to in a couple of decades.” 

 

She winced and changed positions. The chair was not exactly comfortable, but she supposed beggars couldn’t be choosers. Not when the base looked like it was in a warzone. “The doc told me to talk to you,” she told Loki. “Not sure what I should talk about. I could read a book, though.” She dug her phone out of her pocket. For some reason Coulson hadn’t taken it away. Darcy looked at it and realized why. She was getting neither cell signal nor 4G. There were three wifi signals available, one labeled “Guest.” It was unsecured. No doubt SHIELD monitored everything anyone did using that wifi, but all Darcy needed was to access her kindle app. Besides, SHIELD had probably already hacked and cloned her phone by now.

 

With the intent to get a burner phone in the near future, Darcy scrolled through her library, trying to find a book she thought Loki might enjoy. She skipped over her entire romance section, which she saved for late nights when she needed something mindless to wind down, and considered the entire works of Shakespeare, which had been a free download. No, she thought. Loki was still having trouble with some English words, best not to confuse him with Shakespeare’s lexicon.

 

Darcy still wasn’t exactly sure what Loki’s sense of humor was, so she regretfully passed over  Hitchhiker's Guide To the Galaxy and  Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency . As she scrolled through her library, she stumbled upon one that made her smile. Tapping on the icon, she began to read.

 

“Shadow had done three years in prison. He was big enough, and looked don’t-fuck-with-mw enough that his biggest problem was killing time. So he kept himself in shape, and taught himself coin tricks, and thought a lot about how much he loved his wife...”

 

XxxXxxX

 

Loki knew he was dreaming. He always knew he was dreaming. It was one of his many gifts, the ones neither his father or his brother put much stock into. But his mother had always encouraged him to explore his dreams.

 

There would be no exploring this dream, however. He stood in the middle of a vast, gray, shapeless void, filled only with a restless mist, light by a wan gray light with no source. He could smell dust and water vapor, and whatever he stood upon seemed solid enough.

 

There was no sound, at first, and then he could hear a low murmuring, like the overlapping murmurs of half-forgotten memories. The sound came from everywhere at once, just soft enough to be unintelligible. Loki took a step forward, then another. Nothing changed. He seemed trapped in this place, this limbo. He wondered if there was some significance or if this was the creation of his over-taxed mind.

 

Without thinking, he called into the mist,  _ “Ho! Anyone there?” _ His voice died without an echo, much to Loki’s disappointment. It was only a moment later when he realized he  _ had _ a voice at all. At least he had his tongue in his dreams.

 

The mists parted, and Darcy appeared before him. Except not Darcy. The woman who looked like Darcy. The Knowledge of Things Unseen.

 

_ “Hello, son of Odin,” _ she said, tilting her head to one side.  _ “Why do you linger here?” _

 

Loki rolled his eyes.  _ “Trust me, I did not come here by my will.” _

 

The woman who looked like Darcy gave him an expression of feigned surprise.  _ “Surely such a powerful sorcerer as yourself may control where he travels in his dreams.” _

 

_ “Even a sorcerer cannot control his dreams,” _ Loki retorted.  _ “And I am short of patience this night, so speak your riddles quickly or leave me in peace.” _

 

The woman looked affronted.  _ “Why do you assume I bring you riddles?” _

 

_ “Because you have brought me nothing else,”  _ Loki snapped.  _ “Riddles and pain.” _

 

_ “I have never spoke riddles, son of Odin,” _ the woman protested.  _ “I only speak the truth. It is you who refuse to see it for what it is.” _

 

_ “Then speak your truths and be gone,” _ Loki told her impatiently.

 

_ “Why?” _ she challenged, and then gestured around them.  _ “You have other tasks to occupy your time?” _

 

Loki scowled and did not reply. He crossed his arms, waiting for the woman to speak again. She raised her eyebrows, her blue eyes teasing him gently. The silence drew out between them, and only when it became clear she was not willing to break it did Loki acquiesce.

 

_ “Very well,” _ he said with far more patience.  _ “I am ready to listen.” _

 

_ “Choose,” _ the woman said, and raised her hands. Loki flinched, but this time she held different objects. In her right hand was a mirror glass. In her left hand she held a scrying glass. Loki frowned as he looked between them.

 

_ “What are they?” _ he asked, though he suspected.

 

The woman raised her right hand.  _ “To see the truth about your nature and your lineage.”  _ She raised her left hand.  _ “To see yourself as others see you.” _

 

_ “And I must make a choice.” _ It was not a question. Loki still remembered the last time she had offered him a choice.

 

_ “Yes,”  _ she confirmed.

 

Loki hesitated only a moment. He had no desire to dwell upon the nature and lineage of a Jötun, even if that Jötun was himself.  _ “I choose your left hand,” _ he declared.

 

_ “Very well,” _ the woman smiled, and waved her hand. The mist swirled up around her, obscuring her from sight. Then the mist parted, she was gone, and a scene appeared before him. He saw a bare white room, filled only by a tent made from some slick, transparent material. Inside he saw his own body, gravely injured, lying still and lifeless on a narrow bed.

 

And outside the tent, sitting on a chair that could not be comfortable, Darcy hunched over her phone, reading aloud tiny words that appeared on the screen. From what he could gather, she was reading a story of some sort. That gave him pause. There he was, lying grievously wounded, and she was reading him a story. The innocence of the gesture touched him. Loki tried to walk towards Darcy but found his steps took him no closer.

 

Darcy paused in her reading and straightened. She put a hand on her lower back and stretched with a groan. “I don’t know if you can hear me or not, Loki,” she said softly. “I know they always say in the movies that people in comas can hear what’s going on around them. Well, If you can hear me, I want you to know I think you’re incredibly brave. Coulson told us what you did, and boy howdy. For one thing we need to talk about what you can really do. But you got hurt saving a lot of people. And that’s pretty cool, I guess. That’s just what I’m trying to say. You’re pretty cool in my book. And if you want to stick around, I won’t complain.”

 

She sniffed loudly and used her free hand to swipe at her eyes tellingly. “Not gonna cry,” she muttered to herself. “Not gonna cry. Right. Where were we?” She slouched over her phone again, continuing to read the words. Then the gray mist closed in again.

 

Loki turned to examine his surroundings again and found the Knowledge of Things Unseen standing behind him once again.  _ “Why did you show me that?” _ he demanded.

 

_ “Because you needed to see it,” _ she answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  _ “A better question would be: why did that anger you?” _

 

_ “I am not angry!” _ Loki growled. And in truth, the hard knot of emotion in his chest had nothing to do with anger, despite the hot flush of blood to his face. He couldn’t identify the emotion boiling under his skin. It was entirely foreign to him. His first instinct was to retreat, to find a wall he could put his back to until the emotion passed. But he knew that trying to flee was pointless. 

 

His next instinct was to lash out, to exact revenge on the source of the emotion. But the feeling of a cold knife slicing through his jugular brought him to a halt. The woman smiled at him in a manner that was not the least bit reassuring, and the gray mist turned to black and swallowed him whole.


End file.
